I wondered whether Casey wanted to sit between us, or if she simply wanted to sit next to Shawn, but I didn’t want to ask her, and they both seemed to not really care how we were sitting. I guessed it was just in my head again.
The last trailer finished playing and the screen went dark, then the movie started playing.
At the end of the movie, I turned to Casey and saw tears in her eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked, wishing I had a tissue to give to her.
“I can’t believe Leo died,” she said. “That was the saddest movie I ever watched.”
“I guess since you were avoiding spoilers, you didn’t know that it was going to be a sad movie,” I said. “Our other roommate Damon warned us, since he’d seen it already.”
Casey wiped her eyes and we headed out of the theater. “I’m going to go to the washroom and clean myself up so I don’t look like a goddamn mess.”
“Do you need to piss?” Shawn asked. “I drank so much soda I should probably go too.”
“That’s a good idea before we walk back to the dorm,” I said.
We went to the washroom together. Since the movie had just finished, Shawn and I had to wait in line to use the urinals. Two urinals next to each other cleared up at the same time, so Shawn and I went to use them.
I unzipped my pants and took my cock out to relieve myself. With both our dicks out and no divider between us, I began thinking about what happened earlier, waking up to Shawn with his cock pressed up against my ass. I looked down at his cock as he pissed, impressed by how big he was even though he was soft. For some reason, seeing his exposed cock was starting to make me hard. When I looked up at him, I saw him looking at my dick too. We both quickly looked away, and I turned away slightly to face the wall to make the situation less awkward and so he couldn’t see me with an erection.
I put my dick back in my briefs when I was finished and adjusted myself so my semi hard-on wasn’t so visible.
We washed our hands and went back out to see if Casey had come out yet, but she was probably still in the washroom.
“What’s going to happen now?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Shawn said. “I guess we’ll have to see what Casey wants to do.”
“Well, what if she wants to just hang out with you?” I asked.
Shawn shrugged. “Then I’d probably tell her not tonight.”
“Really? Why?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not going to just ditch you after we watched a movie together. Besides, I want to hang out with you and Damon anyway. I already spent the whole night with her last night.” Shawn put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “What are you going to do if she only wants to hang out with you? Did you ever ask yourself that question?”
“Well, after what you said, I’d probably say no too,” I said. “Now I feel like I can’t ditch you.”
“No way,” Shawn said. “You better say yes if she asks you.”
Casey came back up to us. “Are you guys ready to go?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s head back.”
We walked back to campus and I noticed a nice breeze. When we arrived back on campus, we walked Casey back to her dorm. Casey gave us both a hug before she headed inside.
“Thanks for tonight, guys,” she said. “I had a lot of fun.”
“I’m glad you did,” I said, hugging her first.
“We’ll see you later,” Shawn said.
Casey opened the door and headed inside.
For some reason, I felt a bit glad that it was just Shawn and me now.
“Let’s go back and play some Nintendo 64,” Shawn said.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
8
Shawn
Present Day
The doorbell rang and I went to my front door to open it.
Standing next to Damon was a handsome young man with blond hair and blue eyes. Damon looked so proud to be standing with him. The smiles on their faces were contagious.
“You must be Jesse,” I said.
“I am,” Jesse said. “I’m sorry I’m looking like a bit of a mess right now, I just got off work.”
“You look fine,” I said. “Come on in.”
Damon looked around my penthouse. “What an upgrade from our freshman year dorm room,” he said.
I laughed. “Hey, if you guys want to move in, there’s more than enough bedrooms for all of us.”
“Even our kids?” Damon asked.
“Even your kids.”
I went to my fridge and grabbed some beers for Damon and Jesse and handed them over.
“What were you guys doing?” Damon asked. “You both look a bit sweaty.”
“Oh, we were just playing a quick one-on-one before you guys got here.”
“Fuck, you have a court in here?” Damon asked.
“I do,” I said. “Well, a half-court.”
“This place is insane,” Jesse said. “I love basketball. I can’t believe I’m standing in front of you right now.”
“I guess Damon never mentioned we were college roommates to you then.”
“He has actually,” Jesse said. “But I didn’t know you guys were still friends.”
“We were really good friends in college, but we kind of drifted apart. I really want to be back in these two guys’ lives though.” I looked at Damon, and then at Liam. “These guys are the reason why I’m the man I am today.”
“Stop with all that sentimental shit,” Damon said. “I’m glad we’re reconnecting, even though it’s been so many years.”
“You even have an outdoor jacuzzi on your balcony?” Jesse asked.
“You can try it out if you want,” I said. “I’ll warn you though that it’s a bit scary since we’re so high up. I hope you’re not scared of heights.”
Jesse smiled and looked over at Damon.
“If you want to go in, I’ll go in with you,” Damon said to Jesse.
“Let’s go,” Jesse said.
“There are fresh towels under the sink in the bathroom. Do you guys need to borrow swim trunks? I don’t know if I’ll have any that’ll fit Jesse.”
“Do you mind if we just go naked?” Damon asked, giving Jesse a mischievous grin. “Might be easier.”
“Go for it,” I said. “I do it all the time. No one can see you so high up, and the breeze is kind of nice too.”
Damon and Jesse seemed to be a good match for each other and Damon seemed a bit protective of him. I still couldn’t believe Damon was in a relationship with another man. I kept stealing glances at them, just so I could witness their sweet interactions with each other.
I fetched towels for Damon and Jesse, and they went out onto my balcony while Liam and I remained in the kitchen.
“They look so happy together,” I said to Liam.
“Yeah, Damon’s been really happy. I can tell, because I’m around him all the time. Even at work, he’s always smiling now and more friendly toward everyone.”
“I like seeing him happy. Jesse seems like a really sweet guy too.”
“It’s perfect because they both have kids around the same age so they can raise them together.”
“Are you happy?” I asked.
“Me?” Liam asked. “Of course, I’m happy.” He let out a small laugh.
I wondered if he said he was happy just because it was the easy thing to say, like when someone asked me, how my day was, and I always answered, good.
“You sure about that?” I asked.
Even though I hadn’t seen Liam in years, I could always tell when he wasn’t being completely truthful.
“Yeah, of course I’m sure that I’m happy. You think I’m lying?”
“No, I don’t think you’re lying, I just don’t think you’re telling me everything.”
Liam laughed and shook his head. “I don’t owe it to you to tell you anything, Shawn. I haven’t seen you in years.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I guess I’ll have to earn your trust for you
to open up to me again.”
“I want to ask you a question though,” he said. “Why do you even care?”
“Care about what? You?”
“Yeah,” he said. “We haven’t spoken in years, and you’re talking to me like we saw each other yesterday. Why are you inviting me and Damon to your game, showing me your locker room, and penthouse? What’s really going on here?”
It was Liam who was asking the tough questions now, and he deserved to have answers.
“Because I haven’t been happy,” I said. “I thought playing in the NBA would make me happy. I thought travelling the world and meeting so many people would make me happy. I thought having this penthouse overlooking the entire city would make me happy. But I’m not. And I have tried to think of the last time I was truly happy. You want to know when that was?”
Liam nodded.
“Twenty-seven years ago,” I said. “That was when I was truly happy. When I was just hanging out with you and Damon in our dorm room. When I didn’t have much. When we skipped our morning classes because we were too hungover. When we’d stay up late to talk about our big dreams, and also nothing at all.”
Liam furrowed his brows at me. “So, you want us back into your life so you can be happy again? You’ve reconnected with us because you think it’ll make you happy?”
“No,” I said, feeling like we were both on the defensive side now. “I don’t know what I want. I just know that I want to right my wrongs with you. I want to be with the only person who I’ve ever called my best friend. I’m forty-five now, and I feel like I don’t really have anyone in this world who truly has my back. There are always ulterior motives.” I took a deep breath. “I want to know what you’ve been up to as well. I want to know what your baby is like. I want to watch your baby grow up and be in his life too.”
“Really?” Liam asked.
All I could do was nod.
Liam didn’t seem so tense anymore. I wanted to walk around the kitchen counter to give him a hug him, so I could show him how much he meant to me, but, somehow, it didn’t feel appropriate to hug him at that moment.
“It’s going to take time,” Liam said. “We can’t just reconnect one night after so many years, and act like nothing happened. Maybe Damon can do that, but I certainly can’t. I’m not like Damon.”
“I know you aren’t, and that’s what makes you so special. It took me forever to earn your trust when we were in college, and I know you don’t freely give it away to people. I don’t want to put any pressure on you. I just want to get to know you again. The new you. The older you. I just want you to give me the chance. Can you do that?”
Liam took a sip of beer, as he looked me right in my eyes. “I can try,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said.
I looked over to my balcony and could see Damon and Jesse enjoying my jacuzzi.
“You want me to give you a tour of the rest of the place?” I asked Liam, trying to lighten the mood a little.
Liam smiled tightly. “Sure.”
I took him upstairs and showed him the game room which was filled with old pinball machines that I’d collected over the years.
“These are incredible,” Liam said. “It’s like an arcade in here.”
Liam went to one of the pinball machines and played it. His face glowed from the flashing lights.
I stole glances at him as he played, imagining how much more fun this room would be if we were eighteen again. Imagining how much easier it would be to be friends. Imagining how much less tension there’d be between us.
I didn’t admit this to anyone, but being in such a big penthouse was incredibly lonely. Having Liam, Damon, and Jesse there that evening made it less desolate.
For a second, I had an urge to go up behind Liam and wrap my arms around him while he played, like the way we used to cuddle in our dorm room... but I couldn’t do that anymore.
When I was younger, it was just harmless affection shared between two best friends. We weren’t close like that anymore, and he was straight—as far as I knew. Liam was even married to a woman before we reconnected.
All the reasons I couldn’t hold him at that moment made me even more tempted to do so. I’d always tried to break rules and social norms, but the last thing I wanted was to scare Liam away, or make him feel uncomfortable.
When Liam finished playing the game, I showed him the various guestrooms on the second floor. They all looked the same really, and the all-white decor was chosen by the designer. Some of the rooms I’d never even stepped foot in before.
We went to the top floor and my master bedroom, which spanned the entire floor.
“This is massive,” Liam said. “It’s five times the size of my bedroom.”
Liam walked up to my Californian king-size bed.
“No one needs a bed this big,” he said.
I laughed. “I agree. But I guess it sort of fills up the room a little, so it doesn’t feel so big.”
Liam sat down on the corner of my bed.
I grabbed the remote on my nightstand and pressed a button. A projector screen rolled down.
“I have a surprise,” I said.
“What is it?” he asked.
I opened the door of the media console and pulled out two controllers, handing him one of them.
“You still have a Nintendo 64?” he asked.
“Of course,” I said. “Actually, it’s the same one I had in the dorm room.”
Liam laughed. “I can tell, because this controller has always had a piece missing from it.”
I smiled. “You remember.”
“Of course, I remember. We used to play this all the time. I even remember one night when Damon got mad at us. We were still playing at four in the morning, and the light from the TV was making it hard for him to sleep.”
I put in Mario Kart, and when the nostalgic retro music started playing, it felt like I was transported back in time. I sat down next to Liam on my bed. The sides of our legs were touching, but neither of us seemed to mind. I turned to see Liam’s serious face. He loved competition and I’d never get tired of seeing that side of him.
“You ready to get your ass beat?” I asked.
“You mean yours?” he responded with a smile. “Game fucking on.”
We picked our characters and played one of the easier courses.
“Do you still play this?” he asked, his eyes fixed on the projector screen.
“Quite often actually. I play it the night before basketball games sometimes. It calms me down and helps me sleep.”
“I always knew when you were stressed in college, because you’d be playing this game constantly.”
“It’s funny how I can get any game I want, yet I always go back to this one. Nothing can beat Mario Kart.”
“You’re kind of right,” Liam said. “Kind of makes me want to get one too. I can use Hayden as an excuse to buy it.”
I laughed. “A six-month-old baby doesn’t know how to play this.”
“Well, he will when he gets older.”
“Do you think you’re going to get him to play any sports?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t want to be anything like my parents. I’m going to let him pursue whatever passion he wants.”
“What if he becomes a drug dealer?” I asked. “Not that I’m saying he will. Just what if?”
“Then, he better do it big like Pablo Escobar,” Liam said. I looked over at Liam and could tell he was joking from his smile. “I guess I don’t mean he can do whatever he wants. I want to have him exposed to many different things while he’s still young. Different sports, different musical instruments, take him on vacations. Hopefully, he’ll be inspired to do something and pursue it.”
“Having you talk about your son like that makes me want to become a father.”
Liam paused the game and turned to me. “You really want to be a dad?”
I nodded. “But I don’t want to just have a kid. I want to actively be in my child’s life
—you know, be a real father. I don’t think I can do that right now since I travel so often. What I want most is to have a kid who’s as interested in playing ball as I am, so I can teach them everything I know.”
“At your age, you better have a kid soon then,” Liam said jokingly, with a smile.
I punched him on the shoulder, and Liam tried to punch me back, but I grabbed his fist and wrestled him onto my bed, straddling his legs. After all these years, I was still stronger than Liam in these wrestling matches like we used to have.
I held his wrists above his head and pinned them down on the bed. “You’d better take back what you said.”
Liam shook his head and continued to smile. I knew he wasn’t going to take what he said back. I gripped his wrists tighter as he tried to break free from my grip. Our laughs echoed through my bedroom. Somehow, he managed to roll on top of me, and it was me who was under him now. The entire weight of his body was on me, and I could feel my cock rub against his ass. Our faces were inches apart, and our eyes locked for a split second. There was a moment when I thought something was going to happen, but Liam quickly got off me.
When I looked down, I realized I was hard and I put my hand over my crotch so Liam couldn’t see, but when I looked over at him, his hand was over his bulge too, and it left me wondering if he was hard like I was.
9
Liam
Present Day
It was a few days since Shawn had invited us to his place after the game.
When Shawn asked to come over to my place that afternoon, I was hesitant to say yes. I had a lot of things to do for work, but more importantly, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to have Shawn back in my life again. Sure, it was nice to have seen him after the game a few nights ago. We hadn’t talked in decades, and even though it was partly my fault, I was still mad at Shawn for lots of reasons. Yet, there was something about Shawn that I was still very curious about, so I agreed to have him over.
Liam Page 6