Page 97 of Make the Play
A quick glance at the lock screen lets him know it’s past midnight. Theo is going to be asleep. He calls anyway. While the phone rings, Jason paces, unable to get the mental image of Emerson kneeling between his legs out of his head.
“Hello,” Theo slurs, definitely half-asleep.
“Who the fuck is calling in the middle of the night?” Alec grouches, sounding distinctly put out at being woken up.
“It’s Jason,” Theo answers.
“What’s wrong?” Alec asks, sounding very alert.
“Nothing is wrong,” Jason answers, even though the question was directed at Theo. “I just wanted to talk.”
“Nothing is wrong,” Theo relays to Alec. “He wanted to talk to me.”
“In the middle of the night? Codependent fuckers,” Alec grumbles. From the sound of it, he’s kicking at the blankets. He never has handled being woken up well, and Jason would feel more guilty if he didn’t desperately need to talk to his best friend. Besides, Theo was his first, and tonight definitely calls for utilizing best friend privileges.
“Go to sleep, Alexander,” Theo whispers. The phone temporarily goes on mute, and Jason is grateful he doesn’t have to hear what is likely Theo kissing his baby brother. A minute later the phone unmutes. “Okay I went into the living room. What’s up? Couldn’t sleep after a wild night chaperoning. Did you?—”
“I had gay sex,” Jason blurts.
The line goes very quiet. Too quiet for Jason’s liking.
“Say something, Theo.”
“I’m trying to figure out if I’m supposed to pretend to be surprised.”
“Of course you are,” Jason gapes.
“Right,” Theo says, in that gentle tone of his. “I am so completely shocked about this. How is Emerson?”
“How do you know it was Emerson?” Jason asks.
“I don’t think I’m a good enough actor for this,” Theo laughs. “Listen uh, you were kind of—possessive over him, you know?”
“No, I don’t know,” Jason replies, unsure how to handle this. He thought Theo would be surprised. Why isn’t Theo surprised?
“You touched him a lot and stared too and you—Jason, you cuddled him all night.”
“He likes being touched,” Jason grumbles.
“Which is fine, it’s not bad, but you never even touched your ex-girlfriends that much. Incidentally, that brings me to my second point. You’ve never invited any of your exes over for pizza night with me. Ever.”
“Well, uh—” Jason stops, thinking it over. Is Theo right? It hadn’t been an active choice, but they’d all always been jealous of his closeness with Theo no matter how often he told them he wasn’t in love with him. Though he’d never told Theo, it’d been a big reason more than one of his past relationships ended. The moment a girlfriend asked him to pick between her and his best friend, it was no competition. Jason had plenty of room in his heart for all the people he loved, but if someone demanded he pick, it was always going to be Theo.
“Jason, I mean this in the nicest way possible,” Theo says in that same tone he uses when he’s telling Alec something he thinks he might over react to. “You have never seemed—straight.”
“Excuse me?”
Theo sighs. “It’s not a bad thing, but any time I brought it up you shut me down saying you could be a passionate ally so I was never going to push but?—”
“You knew I was bisexual,” Jason blurts. The second he says it a smile spreads across his face despite the absurdity of his current conversation. This is the first time he’s said it out loud, and he likes the way it sounds. He likes the way it feels.
“I mean, I didn’t know what label to give it because you never wanted to talk about it, and you didn’t seem interested in taking home any of the men you’d ogle.”
“I didn’t ogle men.” At Theo’s snort, Jason concedes. “Fine, maybe I did, but I was checking them out for you. I was a good wingman.”
“The best wingman,” Theo agrees. “The best friend. And also…not a very straight thing to do. You used to bet me which one of us could get more phone numbers.”
“Oh my god, Theo. I’m bisexual.”
