Page 37 of Bobby Green

Bobby grunted and rolled over on his side so he was facing Reg but not touching. Reg liked that. He could see Bobby’s eyes when they talked and look at his full lips when he smiled in the dark.

One of Reg’s few purchases as an adult had been a king-sized bed with matching bedding that he swapped out every year. This year the comforter was a faded chambray blue, and the sheets were a few shades lighter. Bobby must have liked it, because he ran his hands back and forth along the edges as they talked. Something about seeing how John and Dex cared for the sets at Johnnies showed him what he could do with his bedroom—so he did it. He had dressers and a mirror.

He kept things clean, kept his clothes folded, kept stuff dusted, and swapped out the posters on the wall every so often. This was his space, and he loved it.

And seeing Bobby here, lying shirtless on his sheets, was sexier than words.

Even when they were having no sex.

“Why don’t you have a girl?” Bobby asked, looking at him like the answer mattered.

“Well, I used to,” Reg told him. “But girls find out about Johnnies, and sometimes they want freaky shit—and I tried the freaky shit. Doing a threesome with another guy—that never ends well. I mean, it ends well with the three guys, but never with the girl and the two guys, that’s for sure.”

Bobby hid a laugh by biting his lip—a habit Reg could forgive him for because it made him look evil in the good way. “Why not two guys and a girl?” he asked, hanging on to Reg’s every word.

“Well, it either comes out one of two ways,” Reg said, speaking from experience. “Way one, all they want is to see the two guys fuck—and that’s great. I do it all the time. I got no problem with that—but I took the girl out to dinner, and I’d like to at least, you know, touch her boob, kiss her, something, ’cause, hey, we’re in bed together, right?”

Bobby nodded sagely. “Okay, so that’s one way.”

“Or the other way is she expects we’ll spend the whole time with her, and only with her. So, you know, it’sallabout her and two guys doing all the stuff to her. And sometimes, when you’re doing something special, this is nice, but… I mean,dude. One of the first lessons at Johnnies is… returning… giving back—what’s the word?”

“Reciprocation,” Bobby said, pulling out that big word without blinking. Yup, one thing was sure—this kid was too smart to be in Reg’s bed.

But anyway….

“Exactly! So, like, you get a blowjob, you give one back. You like to bottom, that’s fine. Either find someone who likes to top or learn how to top just for that time. It doesn’t matter—you give back. So two guys doing all the things for this one girl—if she’s not giving them blowjobs on the other days, it’s not… you know….”

“Fair,” Bobby supplied.

“Yeah. It’s not fair. So that’s some of the freaky shit girls want, and it’s not as fun as it sounds. Some of the other shit is, like, big orgies, and I did one once, and nobody wanted to wear a rubber, and I was the only one who’d evenseenan HIV test, and once I realized all these people jizzing all over the place didn’t have more respect for themselves than that, I found my keys and my shorts and went home.”

Bobby chuckled. “So, nobueno.”

“No. Nobueno.”

“Have you tried… I don’t know, finding anicegirl, who doesn’t mind—”

Reg grunted and rolled to his other side. “Yeah. And she was okay until V went off her meds. But it’s… it’s like I can’t talk to girls like we’re talking here. I miss that when I’m dating girls. It’s just plain weird.”

“Then why not a nice boy?” Bobby asked, his hand coming up to Reg’s brow and playing with the quickly growing scalp stubble.

Reg narrowed his eyes. “I’m not gay,” he said.

“You can be, you know, bi.”

They’d talked about that. “But isn’t that when you fuck guys but have a girlfriend?” Reg asked, feeling stupid.

The way Bobby’s big hazel eyes widened and his face went absolutely still didn’t reassure Reg on that account either.

Idly, while Bobby was struggling for an answer, Reg reached out and rubbed the super-straight bridge of his nose. Bobby crossed his eyes for a moment and then captured his hand—but didn’t release it.

“Bisexual is when you like both. So you could have a girlfriend to come home to or a boyfriend to go out with. You don’t have to have them both at the same time to be bi.”

Reg thought about it. “But how do you have… you know. A grown-up family if it’s only two guys?”

Bobby spread Reg’s hand and started drawing small designs on the inside of his wrist, and for no reason at all, Reg started getting hard.

“I don’t know,” Bobby admitted. “But you see it on TV. People do it all the time.”