Page 51 of B is for Beg

Blake shakes his head. “Nah. I used my pocket money to buy them. You both lost, so lose clothes.”

I take another sock off, and Gabe follows suit.

“You guys are so boring!” Blake complains.

“You can take your socks off too,” I point out.

“I will. Eventually. Your turn.”

“I kissed every guy on the football team, I had a Saturday job stacking shelves at a supermarket, and I saved up to buy my first DSLR camera.”

“You didn’t kiss every guy on the football team?” Blake asks.

“You didn’t save up to buy your first camera,” Gabe says knowingly.

“Gabe’s right. It was a gift from my uncle.”

“Wow, expensive gift,” Blake says.

“Eh, he splashed cash around rather than love.”

“Wait. Really? You kissedeveryguy on the football team?”

“Yup.”

Gabe laughs. “What he’s not telling you is that he wasonthe football team and that kissing and hugging is a pretty normal way of congratulating each other after winning matches.”

“I’m not sure that counts,” Blake muses.

“I am. Take something off, princess.”

He takes a sock off and waggles it in front of us, which I’m pretty sure is just to taunt me.

“Our next topic is first kisses,” Gabe says. “You go first, baby boy.”

Blake leans back on two hands and tips his head back to stare at the ceiling. I enjoy the view of his bare chest as he thinks.

“My first kiss was with a girl, in the dark, and in the rain,” Blake says.

“It wasn’t in the dark,” Gabe and I say together.

Blake scowls. “You’re both right.”

I laugh. “You’ll have to try harder than that to catch us out, princess. My turn. My first kiss was behind the bins at school, he used tongue, and he was three years older than me.”

Gabe snorts out a laugh. “I know the answer to this.”

“Then let Blake guess first.”

“It wasn’t behind the bins?” Blake asks.

I look to Gabe.

“He didn’t use tongue.”

I pretend to drum on my knee. “And the winner is, Gabe! It was in secondary school. I was in year ten, and he was in year thirteen. It was a super sweet kiss. I was just figuring out my sexuality, but from that moment on, I knew I was gay. Off.”

Blake stands and slips out of his jeans. Underneath, he’s wearing a pair of dusky pink knickers with a thick lace waistband and a thin band of lace over his hips. I nod approvingly, although he does look a little comical, wearing sexy knickers and one sock.