Str8te Boys Read online

  “Aw, man…” Mav didn’t know what to say, what to do. Of course, he hadn’t meant all the shit he’d told Enslow but how could he convince Duke of that? “Look,” he began, “I was just trying to—”

  “Tryin’ to what? Deny everything we did the past few days? Forget you ever felt anything but friendship for me? Or did you even feel that?”

  “Of course I did—I do,” Mav yelled, balling up his fists in frustration. “You’re my best friend, Duke. We just got…I don’t know, carried away a little in the past few days. But that’s no reason to scrap the whole friendship.”

  “Oh, I get it. So you wanna just go back to the way things were before. We can be roommates and best buds and go on double dates with empty-headed bimbo cheerleaders and be completely hetero to the outside world,” Duke snarled.

  “I didn’t say that—” Mav began.

  “Yeah, best friends and that’s all,” Duke cut him off. “But what about at night when you’re cold and lonely—is it okay for me to come sleep in the same bed with you then? Or what about if you’re horny and want a handjob or a blowjob—you want me to take care of that too? I guess that’s okay as long as we don’t ever talk about it and none of the rest of the team finds out. As long as nobody suspects were gay. Is that it, Mav?”

  “Duke, man, come on…”

  “No!” Duke shook his head, his brown eyes suspiciously bright. “No, man, now that I know how you really feel I’ve got nothing else to say to you. I just…I can’t believe I ever thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. This whole time, the last four years, have been a complete waste. A total lie.”

  He turned, his shoulders stiff with anger and tension, and walked away, leaving Mav to wonder what the hell had just happened and how his life had suddenly turned to shit.

  Chapter Six

  “Come on, Ethan, open up. I know he’s in there—I just want to talk to him.” Mav pounded on the door to the two gay Es’ apartment, demanding entry. It had been nearly a week since his fight with Duke and he hadn’t seen him since. Mav had gone to a local college bar to try and drown his sorrows after their confrontation and when he’d gotten back to his apartment in the wee hours of the morning his roommate had moved out lock, stock and barrel. The flat screen TV was gone, Duke’s clothes were missing and his bed stripped bare, even the hangers were gone from his closet. Mav had wandered the half-empty apartment that had been the scene of so many study sessions and parties and late-night cuddles in either his bed or Duke’s and felt like it was his heart Duke had cleaned out and left empty instead.

  He’d heard through the grapevine that Duke had put his stuff in storage and was staying with the two gay Es, but he didn’t go over there immediately. Instead, he’d decided to give Duke time to cool off and come home on his own, which he surely would after he realized that this was all just a stupid misunderstanding.

  It wasn’t like Mav didn’t care about him or want to be with him. And it wasn’t like they couldn’t fool around a little after the lights were down and nobody else was around. After all, where was the harm in a few blowjobs and handjobs? It was all no big deal, Mav had decided. But you couldn’t go around letting what you did after hours when it was dark and quiet and you’d had a little too much beer define the rest of your life.

  Just because he liked the taste of Duke’s lips against him, liked the feel of Duke’s hand and mouth on his cock, didn’t make him gay. Not by a long shot. He just liked being close to his buddy. What he couldn’t understand was why Duke had to make such a big deal out of it. Why couldn’t they just keep being roommates and friends with a few fringe benefits? Why did they have to announce to the whole world that they liked sleeping in the same bed and occasionally sucking each other off?

  All these thoughts had been running around in his head the entire week, making it nearly impossible to think of anything else. He’d done pretty poorly on most of his tests, making him glad he was already accepted to pharmacy school. If he hadn’t been, he would have been in deep shit considering what the final exam scores did to his GPA.

  But now he was done thinking and done waiting for Duke to come around and come home. It was their last night on campus. All of his stuff was already bagged and tagged and loaded on a moving truck he would be driving to Tallahassee tomorrow. Mav couldn’t help thinking that there was plenty of room in the truck for more. If he and Duke hadn’t had their stupid fight, his roommate’s possessions could be there too, waiting for the trip to their new apartment and new life. Of course, he wasn’t sure how that new life would have gone with Duke insisting they should be out and proud instead of just keeping things under wraps, but he was sure they could have worked that out somehow. But now they weren’t working anything out. Instead he was going to be driving alone and looking for a place on his own instead of sharing the apartment Duke had picked out for them, wherever it was. He’d settle down and go to pharmacy school and probably marry some girl his mom would approve of and never see Duke again.

  Only Mav wasn’t willing to do that. Not at least without seeing his former roommate and ex-best friend at least one more time. Tonight was the end-of-the-year party for the soccer team—the last end-of-the-year party he would ever attend and he didn’t want to be there without Duke. Didn’t want to leave without looking into Duke’s brown eyes once more and hearing his voice one last time. Just the thought of never seeing the man who had meant so much to him for the past four years tied Mav’s stomach in knots and brought a lump to his throat. He didn’t want things to end this way. Somewhere deep inside him a tiny voice whispered that he didn’t want things to end at all. That he wanted to take Duke with him to Tallahassee and live together as more than roommates, just as his friend had wanted. But that was a crazy idea and Mav knew it. He pushed the little voice to one side and concentrated on what was important—seeing Duke one more time and making things right between them before it was too late.

  “Ethan!” he bellowed, pounding on the apartment door again. “Open up! I mean it, man.”

  Finally the front door was unlatched, but it wasn’t Ethan’s chocolate brown complexion that greeted him but the tanned, blond visage of his partner, Evan. He was much less obvious about his sexuality than Ethan, without all the effeminate mannerisms, which made Mav a whole lot more comfortable around him. Most of the time he thought that Evan just seemed like a regular guy.

  “Come on in, Mav,” he said mildly, stepping to one side. “Duke’s not here right now but you’re welcome to wait until he gets back.”

  “And when will that be?” Mav asked, barging in angrily and throwing himself on the soft brown leather couch in the living room. He wondered if this was where Duke had been spending his nights and wished he dared to bend over and sniff the leather to see if he could pick up a trace of his friend’s spicy scent.

  Evan shrugged. “Don’t know. I don’t have any idea where he went so you might be waiting a while.”

  “That’s fine, I’m not moving ’til I see him,” Mav grumbled, sinking lower in the couch.

  Evan grinned. “Well, seeing that you’re going to be here a while, how about something to dink? Beer, water with lemon or white wine?”

  Mav sighed, disarmed by the other man’s good manners. “I’ll take the water, thanks.” He didn’t want to be in the least bit inebriated when he talked to Duke. He had things to say to the stupid sonofabitch and he wanted everything to come out perfectly.

  Evan disappeared into the kitchen for a minute and came back with a cold glass filled with ice cubes and water with a twist of lemon on top. “Here you go. Looks like you could use it.”

  “Thanks.” Mav took the glass and drained it in a few long swallows. Then he sighed and sank deeper into the couch. “That hit the spot. I was parched.”

  “Yeah.” Evan settled onto a matching brown leather chair across from him. “Being miserable is thirsty work.”

  “What do you mean? What makes you think I’m miserable?” Mav demanded.

  “Wel