Page 36

Alex

“ B rad, you’ve been bouncing around for days. Are you sure you don’t have something to tell us?” Brad’s mom asked from the couch across from us.

We’d come home after Brad was welcomed by the East City Wranglers.

We hadn’t really had a day off since it was televised. As soon as we got home, it was party after party. Our families, our school friends up at the lake, a spontaneous street party, and everywhere we went there were people congratulating us. It was the same as when I was drafted. Brad was the second person from our school to get into the national leagues, and it was enough for the whole town to celebrate.

We hadn’t really had a chance to breathe for three days. We only had two weeks left at home before we had to leave for training, and then we would be on the move endlessly.

But the important thing was that we would be together.

Brad shot a huge grin at his mom. They were carbon copies of each other. The only difference was his eyes were blue instead of her dark green.

We’d just had a casual dinner, like we had every weekend since we were kids.

Our parents had been just as close friends as Brad and me when they were growing up. Even if Brad and I had ended up hating each other, we would have been forced to be together, anyway.

But it wasn’t like that. It so, so wasn’t like that.

But that didn’t mean I wanted to tell our parents about us straight away, even though Brad and I had talked about it so much, I basically just gave in to his demand.

He was sure all of our parents would understand, but I wasn’t sure how his mom and dad would react. They were as easy and casual as Brad, but they had talked about having grandchildren when we were younger, and it felt like I was taking that away from them.

After dinner, we usually spread out around the living room, stuck on the TV, and just drank and chatted. It was like that whenever we came home from the holidays. Only this time, Brad and I had a secret.

Or I thought we did…

The instant his mom asked the question, Brad slammed his hand down on mine.

“I’m in love with Alex!” he shouted happily, and the room instantly plunged into a heavy silence.

I drew in a harsh breath, trying to whip my hand from his, but he held me tight.

The air was sucked out of the usually comfortable space as the tension hiked so high so quickly it was like we were in a rocket.

I was ready to run. Ready to take Brad and get out of there and save us both.

Because I thought it was going to explode.

My gaze jumped between our parents, trying to gauge their reactions as fear suddenly swallowed me up.

My chest grew even tighter the longer they stared at me and Brad, who was grinning like an idiot at them.

I hadn’t been ‘grumpy’ with him since we started going out, even though he kept saying more and more embarrassing things when we were fucking. But my irritation quickly spiked.

I didn’t want them to turn around and hate us because we were in love. I was scared of being kicked out and losing them because of it. I never planned on telling them because there was no need to.

I scanned their faces. Both our moms had frozen, wine glasses in the air, while Brad’s dad sat cross-legged on the floor opposite mine.

They didn’t even blink.

My heart sank at the looks on their faces. Because they couldn’t say a thing. It was like with Brad, when he needed space to catch up, so they were just adjusting to the news.

We’d have enough money to live by once we began playing on the main team, but it couldn’t cover the cost of losing our families.

I flinched back as my dad shot up from the floor, throwing his fist out.

“Yes! Finally!” he whooped as he grinned at us before swerving, shooting his open palm at Brad’s dad. “Alright, hand it over!”

“Dammit,” Brad’s dad grumbled as he shifted, lifting his ass from the carpet to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. “But I still won all those other times.”

The tension broke in the room as our moms burst into bright smiles.

“Seriously, Alex. I was giving up hope.” Mom sighed.

Brad’s mom nodded, too. “We said we wouldn’t push you both but, really you two, it’s been years.”

“W-what?” I asked shakily as Brad’s dad whipped out a wad of cash. “What are you talking about?”

Brad’s mom took another sip of wine. “Your dad and Brad’s had a bet over how long it would take for you to admit your feelings. We were actually wondering if you’d already told Brad, and my darling son was just too dense to get it.”

“Mom!” Brad gasped, apparently scandalized, even though I had been wondering the same thing for years.

“Yeah.” Dad picked up the baton as he narrowed his eyes at me. “You’ve cost me nearly a thousand dollars. I had so much faith in you that I told this dickhead,” he jerked his thumb at Brad’s dad, “I’d give him twenty-five bucks every month until you started dating. Three years, Alex! Three. Years .”

The blush which had been an almost permanent feature on my face since Brad first kissed me flared up again.

“Though he had to cough up five hundred when you eventually did,” Dad said with a laugh, puffing out his chest. “He didn’t have the same faith I did.”

“And it didn’t pay off,” Brad’s dad bit back as he handed over the cash.

“That really isn’t the point,” Dad glowered at him. “I had faith in my kid, unlike someone .”

“But it wasn’t Alex! I was the one that confessed to him!” Brad said.

Then the room really did plunge into silence as all eyes swung to me.

Their gazes bore into me so deeply I hunched my shoulders, cringing away from their judgment as looks of disbelief hit me from all angles.

“You knew all along?” I asked quietly.

“Of course we knew—you’re terrible at hiding things. And Brad is… Well, Brad.” His mom shrugged, the rest of our parents still nodding.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brad said, totally innocent, not a single clue about what was actually going on, which was to be expected.

His mom smiled kindly at him. “Nothing, darling, you’re just special.” Which is exactly what she said to him whenever he did something dumb.

I trembled as I clutched Brad’s hand, trying to hold it all back. Our parents carried on chatting away like everything was fine, like it didn’t matter to them that their sons were gay. Their grins were wider and their voices were more excited, but they didn’t make any comments or look disappointed or shout at us. They didn’t kick us out or hit us or do anything from the horror stories I read online about kids coming out to their parents. They weren’t even disappointed by how long it took; they just teased us.

“Anyway, now that that’s sorted.” Dad threw me a glare. “We can finally put our bet to rest. I’ve been waiting so long for you two I thought I was going to be an old man before Brad wised up.” He chucked himself back on the floor next to Brad’s dad, resting against the couch. “I heard the Wranglers are playing a home game soon. I can’t wait to see you boys in action.” I opened my mouth to tell them it might be a year or two before we actually played in the big games, but they were babbling too quickly.

Mom cut in. “Oooh, how soon will you get your uniforms? We’ll have to take photos for the albums.”

“And we have to go to your first game, obviously!” Brad’s mom laughed as his dad smiled at her, both of them so clearly Brad’s parents just from their grins.

“We’ll all be cheering you both on.”

“Well, we’ll have to get ourselves more team colors for support.”

“We should make some signs!”

“And why don’t we…”

The four of them went off into their own world, chattering excitedly as I stared at them in shock.

It was just so…easy.

“See?” Brad leaned in to whisper to me, and my gaze snapped back to him. “I told you it would be fine!”

I blinked, not fully registering that we’d just come out to our parents with no struggles at all, or that they had been waiting for us. They’d had years to prepare, just like I had. It seemed like everyone knew before Brad did, and my dumbass boyfriend needed to be hit by a truck just to figure out what was going on.

“I can’t believe you just did it,” I whispered.

“Are you mad at me?”

“A little bit,” I said sheepishly.

“But it was easy, wasn’t it? I told you, I’m going to make it so fucking amazing for you from now on. No matter what it is.”

With our hands still resting on the pillow of the couch, I clenched my fingers around his.

A shuddering breath escaped me, the corners of my eyes pricking. I still didn’t know what to do when I was this happy.

Everything was falling into place just like I had dreamed.

Brad had been drafted, Brad loved me, and our parents accepted us.

All the stuff that had been whirling around in my brain for years, and Brad just threw himself into it without any fear.

We were both good players, but our different styles shone through in the rest of our lives. My calculating plays meant I only went for this when I knew I had a chance. Whereas Brad went for every single play, no matter if he failed or not.

It was why I was drafted first, and why Brad had to wait to be chosen. But it meant Brad was the winner when it came to our relationship.

What I meant to say to him was I wanted to kiss him to say thank you for being him; instead, I quietly met him with a slight smile.

“I’m sorry it took me this long to tell you, and that I did so many stupid things to get your attention.”

“What do you mean ‘stupid things’? You mean, that thing with Lance?”

My eyes fluttered closed. I guessed Brad’s 1.0-8.0s really were failures.

“Yeah,” I said flatly. “Yeah, Brad. That thing with Lance.” I’d tell him about the Brad .0 plans in the future, once he’d settled his jealousy. Even after I told him about Tommy, and Lance’s mom, he still didn’t believe nothing was going on, at least from Lance’s side. Though I actually liked how he wanted to keep me all to himself.

“But it worked, didn’t it?” He grinned. “Seriously, just see it like practice. You were building up for a big game. First times have to be perfect, right?”

No fuss, no mess, nothing to complicate things. He didn’t spin around in mind, endlessly worrying about anything because he knew what he wanted and went for it. And in the span of a few weeks, he had changed my life as easily as he laughed.

It really was perfect, after all.

***

I moaned, arching my back as Brad ran his lips over my neck, tweaking my nipple and murmuring how much he loved me.

We took our old couch with us when we left Redhill, bringing it back to my parents’ garage, the place where everything began. We escaped the living room as soon as we could, mainly because Brad looked so happy, I was worried he was going to burst out with another surprise, like just straight up telling our parents how much he loved to fuck me.

Because when Brad was happy, he wanted to fuck me.

But to be honest, if he was excited, sad, tired, nervous, or anything other emotion under the sun, he wanted to fuck me.

Which is why he pounced on me the second we entered the garage. And next thing I knew, Brad had spread me out on our couch, happily grinding his cock against mine.

“Fuck, you’re so fucking hot,” he groaned as he laid kisses over my collarbone, and I let out a shuddering cry.

There was only a door separating us from the house, but the living room was far enough away, and our parents had drunk enough wine and chatted loudly all the time, so they wouldn’t hear us as long as he didn’t go too hard.

“You say that all the time,” I moaned, squeezing my eyes closed.

I was still trying to process how our parents were laughing and smiling at us, that they’d known all this time, and they weren’t judging us for it at all.

I trembled under Brad, clinging to him, sinking into the huge, wide-open feeling of not being afraid.

I’d suffocated myself for so long and, the moment I let go, Brad took my hand and freed me.

My eyes stung as he nuzzled my ear, pinching my nipple again, pleasure pulsing in me.

“I love you so much.” He grinned as he carried on kissing my throat. I was so smothered by the chaos of my feelings that I only realized what he was doing when my neck started tingling.

“Hey.” I sniffled as I pushed at him. “No hickeys.”

“But it’s okay now!” Brad laughed. “We don’t have to hide it like you were worried about.”

His beam tumbled away as he caught the look on my face.

“Dude, are you crying?” Brad gasped, shooting up and clasping my cheeks. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

I laughed, lifting my arms to wrap them around his neck.

“I’m not crying. I’m fine,” I said as I brought him back down to my lips. “I’m so totally fine.”

Maybe if I trusted him and my parents more, I wouldn’t have gone through all that. But like Brad’s mom said, Brad was Brad. And if I hadn’t followed Lance’s plan, I might have been chasing Brad around my whole life without ever really being happy.

Brad brushed my cheeks with the tip of his fingers with a dopey smile.

“Will you kiss me again?” I asked. If I kept looking at him longer, I really was going to cry.

I wanted him to devour me with one of his hungry kisses, which left me begging for air, but instead, he placed a gentle kiss on my cheek.

“Hey,” he said, his voice low. “I don’t know why you’re getting so worked up.” Another kiss on my left cheek. “But I’ve wanted to tell you for ages now.” One kiss at the corner of my right eye. “I’m going to make sure I’m the best boyfriend in the world.” A softer kiss at the corner of my left. “So, even if you’re crying, you know I’m always gonna be with you.” He pulled back to look at me as I trembled in his hold. “I’m never going to make you feel like you have to hide again.”

I choked out a laugh. He’d been saying stuff like that since we were kids

“But what if I want to be alone?” I asked. Even though I loved him, twenty-four hours, seven days a week of Brad could be exhausting.

“But you won’t be lonely, right? Because I’ll be here.” He tapped my heart. “And I’ll be there as soon as you call me.”

My face crumpled, my eyes stinging even more as my heart burst at his words. I didn’t know it was possible for him to shine any brighter, but his smile grew as he kissed me more.

“I never knew you were such a cry baby.”

“It’s your fault.” I pouted through my tears. “I never knew you were so romantic.”

“I’m not trying to be, I swear! I’m just naturally amazing. If I was really being romantic, I’d sweep you off to a tropical beach where I could feed you grapes and we could fuck all day in the sun.”

“And that would be another first?” I asked, still laughing as I pulled him into another kiss.

“Fuck yeah, it would be a first,” he groaned as he brought me even closer.

It was so easy to wind him up. I just had to say it was the first time we’d done something, and he got hard instantly.

“You’re my first love, man. I’m never going to love anyone else.”

I was still so embarrassed to say it. Brad was happy to go around shouting about how much he loved me. For him, it was so new and exciting, but I’d had years of hiding, and I couldn’t get over it right away.

“We’re going to run out of firsts eventually,” I teased him, my nose rubbing his as we watched each other. The more he spoke about firsts, the hornier he got, so all I had to do was get him talking about it.

“Absolutely no way!” he gasped. “We’ll have forever firsts. I’m always going to find something new to do with you. That’s another promise I’m making.”

I grinned up at him. “But we’ve had sex on our couch before. This isn’t a first.”

He shot up with a shocked expression, his cock grinding against mine through our shorts, like he just realized this wasn’t brand-new, even though there were loads of things we did over and over again—like our morning routine, or practice drills, or even when we went to sleep in his room, wrapped around each other.

His gaze sped around the room, looking for something, until he landed on the red Kites college cap he’d dropped on top of the couch yesterday when we first had sex here. “Okay, fine, but…” He swiped it up, putting it on instantly. “We’ve never had sex on this couch while I’ve been wearing this hat!”

I laughed as he fell back on top of me, his elbows denting the cushion on either side of my ears. “I swear, man. I love you so much that every day feels like a first with you.”

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes, my heart bursting with gratitude that I was finally here with him. “I love you, too.”

“See!? That’s the first time you’ve said that to me while we’ve been on this couch wearing this hat.”

“And it’s the first time I’ve kissed you wearing this hat.” I pulled him to me, both of us chuckling as it bumped off my forehead, and I kissed him softly.

“And it’s the first Sunday we’ve kissed while you’ve been wearing this hat,” I said, deepening my voice in the way I knew he liked. “And the first time it’s been in the evening. And the first time when it’s been raining, and the first time we’ve had the lights on…” By the time I trailed off, he was jelly in my arms.

I was about to say more, but he groaned loudly, pouncing on me again, hungrily kissing me in the way I wanted.

It was the first time he’d kissed me after we came out to our parents.

And another one of the many firsts of our future.