Page 9 of Frat Around and Find Out (Peach State Fratbros #1)

Lance

“H ow have you been?” Mom asks.

After my Biomedical Microscopy class, I had some free time, so I decided to give her a call. I make it a point to give my parents a call whenever I can. Since we lost Kacey, we all know we must take advantage of every precious moment since we never know how many we’ll have left.

“Work and school,” I reply. “Been hectic the past few weeks but managing.”

“And how was TaskFrat? You haven’t mentioned it. Do I need to expect Shirley to send me a video of you in a…I don’t know…what’s worse than a G-string?”

Shirley is Mom’s friend, who apparently is active enough on social media to catch when one of the latest TaskFrat TikTok videos is trending.

“No G-string,” I reply, which gets her laughing.

I tell her about the event last Friday—conveniently leaving out the bit about having a raging boner for Ty and our subsequent conversation at Beta Pi. She doesn’t need to know I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Ty Lancaster.

And not in my usual, fun-rivalry way.

I’ve tested our theory that it might be from lack of jerking off…several times. But it hasn’t done anything to keep me from blushing whenever I think about what happened. My di ck plumps up every time I think about the way he was rubbing against my ass during the challenge.

“It sounds like it was fun,” Mom says.

Fun isn’t the word I’d use for any of this. Just weird .

“So I imagine Ty wasn’t too thrilled that you were tied with him,” Mom adds.

This is what I get for having a healthy relationship with my mom and telling her about all the stuff in my life. I love her, but fuck, should’ve known I couldn’t talk to her about Ty too much without potentially piquing her curiosity.

“Yeah, he wasn’t thrilled. But hey, I’m planning to meet Ash over at the library soon, so I’ll call you later and we can chat about your day some.”

“I feel like you’re avoiding something, but your mother knows you well enough to let you sort it out, and I’ll talk to you about whatever it is when you feel like.”

“Okay, Mom,” I groan.

We exchange I-love-yous and goodbyes. I feel bad for cutting our call short, but I wasn’t entirely dishonest. I am meeting Ash at the library, like I usually do on Tuesdays.

At the same time, it’s not some urgent thing I needed to get off the phone with her for.

But hey, it’ll give me extra study time, so I head over and get to it.

Ash isn’t here yet. Figure he’s swinging by the student center cafeteria to grab a jumbo chocolate-chip cookie, his favorite, and I do my best to concentrate on my Signals & Systems work.

But concentration hasn’t been easy the past few days, and all I can think is that I should just ask Ash about these things I’m feeling.

Who’ll understand better than my bi guy?

Still, Ash is smart, and if I say something that indicates I’m having these feelings about Ty, then I’m revealing something about Ty, without his consent, which I would never do.

Fuck. But how can I bear dealing with these thoughts all by myself?

I focus on my work, starting to feel like I’m able to get Ty Lancaster out of my head again, when I hear, “Hey, Stud.”

There’s that familiar warmth in my cheeks again. I turn to see Ty standing at my side, his gaze right on mine, and I glance away quickly, like I’m afraid if he looks into my eyes, he’ll see how I’m starting to think I was wrong about it being from not getting off.

“Hey, Rocky…” I drag out as he makes himself comfortable in the chair beside mine.

He’s quiet for an uncomfortably lengthy amount of time, so I add, “What’s up?”

“Good.”

“ Good isn’t a response to what’s up.”

He searches around the library, which is fairly empty, but it’s not like we can just chat about anything we want in here.

“How you been?” he asks.

“Fine… You?”

Silence again. And I’m left thinking, what the hell is going on here?

“I think we need to talk.” He leans closer, whispering, “I—”

As his breath hits my ear, my skin pricks with sensation, and I recoil from him, catching him by surprise.

“Man, personal space,” I say.

“Sorry.” His forehead creases because that’s not something I’ve requested from him before.

I notice the way he’s looking at me, and it’s weird, like this is the first time he’s ever seen my face. I want to crawl out of my goddamn skin and slip away, but also, don’t want to move. Don’t want him to stop.

“Sorry I’m late,” Ash’s voice comes from nearby, and Ty and I break eye contact. “The cafeteria had a line because they only had one guy working the register.” He sets his stuff down on the chair opposite mine.

“Hey, Ty…” Ash glances between us, seemingly trying to make it make sense since it’s not like I’m best friends with the guy.

Smart as Ash is, I doubt he could guess what’s going on right now even if he tried.

“I, uh…” Ty responds.

He’s not thinking fast enough, and I worry he’s gonna make things as awkward around Ash as he has around me, but fortunately Ash doesn’t press, and instead says, “Oh, I know what you guys are talking about.”

“What?” Ty asks.

I can tell by his panicked expression that he thinks I went off and told my best friend about our conversation the other night, so as Ash settles in his chair, I try to psychically convey to Ty that Ash doesn’t know what the hell happened, and that he won’t unless Ty says something.

I’m expecting him to get angry about thinking I blabbed, but his expression relaxes. “I guess he is your best friend…”

“Ty, why don’t we talk about this later?” I ask, trying to get the guy to shut the hell up because Ash isn’t a dummy, and he’s clearly catching on that something’s up.

“I would have preferred you told me before you told him,” Ty goes on, “because this isn’t just about you.”

“Ty,” I say sternly as Ash glances between us. He might not have suspected anything before, but now he definitely is. “Just official TaskFrat stuff,” I tell Ash. “So it’s something we should talk about another time, Ty. ”

Ty’s cheeks pinken—it’s nice not being the one blushing for a change—but Ash just shrugs, seeming to buy the cover. I hate lying to my best friend.

“Yeah, I guess it’s something we can talk about later,” Ty says. “Maybe you can meet me over at Sigma Alpha.”

I should agree, but if I let him leave now, after everything that just happened and everything I’ve been thinking about since this past weekend, it’ll drive me wild. I won’t be able to think about anything else, let alone study.

“You know, maybe we should go ahead and get this sorted out now.” I push to my feet. “Ash, do you mind?”

Ash’s expression twists up. “It’s not a big deal. Get your stuff done.”

I put my book and notebook away, and then we head toward the main stairwell doors. Ty looks anxious as fuck.

“Where do you want to go?” I ask him.

“One of the meeting rooms on the fifth floor,” he says, I’m assuming because that floor’s never that busy.

I’m relieved we’re gonna discuss this right away, since I’m in too much suspense about what he wants to talk about. When we reach the fifth floor, we find an empty room without anyone else on either side, then head in and close the door.

Ty glances around.

“You looking for recording devices?” I ask. “So you can give me a secret mission?” I’m trying to make light of a tense situation, but he glares at me. Doesn’t seem in the mood. “Any other day you would have thought that funny,” I remark.

“Yeah, well, today’s not any other day.”

Then there’s awkward silence again.

I head to the other side of the main table that takes up most of the room, and I set my backpack in one of the swivel chairs. A thousand clever remarks run through my head, but since Ty’s not in the mood, I wait for him to get to the point.

And wait…

And wait…

He runs his hand through his hair, messing up his bangs, then starts for the door. I think he might be about to head out, which would make this whole situation even stranger than it already is, but then he spins toward me. “Lance, you were wrong.”

“I wasn’t expecting an accusation to start. What was I wrong about?”

“I don’t think I’m just horny as fuck.”

Shit.

“Friday after the party, after we talked about it, I was actually jerking off…”

I cringe. “Is this something we need to get into?”

“It’s relevant,” he insists, so I let him go on. “I was thinking about this girl I hooked up with over the summer. Hot-as-hell blonde in Miami…”

A pulse of rage rushes through me, the sort I might have had for him any other time when I knew he was having this incredible sex life, but now I’m wondering if some of this jealousy isn’t because he was with that girl, but that she was with him. Is this how he felt about Angie?

“It was incredible,” he says. “Like fucking-for-hours kind of fucking—”

“I don’t need the details of your sex life. And why did you bring me in here to talk about how you were jerking off thinking about this girl? Sounds like I was right, and yet you said I was wrong. I’m so fucking confused.”

“Because I started thinking about you ,” he spits out, and I’m so thrown, he might as well have told me the building was on fire .

“Me?” I ask, barely able to make sense of the thoughts in my head.

“Like…here I was, thinking about one of the hottest sexual experiences of my life, and then suddenly I’m thinking about you.”

“Bet that killed the mood real fast,” I blurt out.

I don’t even know why I said that. After what he shared so far, I know that can’t be the case, yet a part of me just can’t accept the weird-ass thing that’s been going on between us the past few days.

But as we make eye contact, his expression even more serious than when he’s trying to stomp Alpha Theta Mu’s ass during a challenge, I’m aware of how much my being there didn’t kill the mood even before he says, “I came harder than I’ve ever come in my life.”

There go my cheeks again.

“You were thinking about…what? Us messing around?”

His face twists up. “Do you really want to know?”

“The hell? I didn’t want to know any of this, but if you’re gonna share this much, I don’t see why you need to stop.”

He hesitates, as though some reasonable part of his brain knows better than to share, before he says, “Fucking you, Lance. I was fucking you. Like giving you the time of your life, watching you enjoy every inch of me. Jesus, are you happy?”

Happy isn’t the word I’d use, but my face is burning, and my dick is getting pretty stiff, the two events assuring me that what happened between us and what I’ve been thinking about between last Friday and today isn’t a fluke.

“And,” he continues, “I’ve been trying to give myself some time to think about why I was thinking about you, but now it’s like burned into my fucking brain, and it’s just, like, haunting me at this point. ”

“You wanted to fuck me?” It’s hard to tell if I need him to confirm what he just said or if I want to hear him say it again.

“No, I was trying not to think about that,” he says, then, “But…yes. A lot. Like right until I blew.”

He quiets again, and as uncomfortable as the silences were before, this time it feels unbearable. He won’t even look at me.

“Lance, I’ve never had to deal with something like this before, but I think…no, I know , I want to act on some of these things. And I’m wondering if maybe I misunderstood that first time…”

“When you came all over me? Yeah, maybe that should have been some kind of indication for both of us.”

He glares at me again, and I realize why. “Whoa, I wasn’t making a joke,” I assure him.

“Just saying I should have probably put two and two together. I know your erection was probably because you are this fucking prude who hasn’t had sex in like a million years, but mine—”

“It hasn’t been that long.”

He snickers. “Dude, now I’m trying to lighten the mood.”

And really, I’m glad someone is trying because this shit is way too serious right now.

He takes a breath. “I know you probably don’t have those kinds of feelings for me, and I guess since you’re the first person who experienced what was happening to me—”

“Twice.”

He smiles again, and fuck, what it does to me knowing I can make him smile like that.

Why did I just think that…?

Wait, why is that thought surprising me when I keep having these kinds of thoughts?

“I’ve never felt this way about other guys, Lance. And I’ve pulled up images online, but it seems it’s just you who gets me going.”

I swear, it’s like the guy is trying to poke at my inner…whatever the hell is making me interested.

“And I don’t know what to do about it,” he concludes. “Sorry if I’m making this too weird.”

“You’re definitely doing that.”

He huffs, nodding, avoiding eye contact.

And…I can’t deny something’s happening for me too. “I guess this would be a good time to tell you that whatever’s going on with you, I…get what you mean.”

His gaze cuts right to me.

“And I don’t know what’s going on either, but even while you’ve been talking about this…” I indicate my crotch, and it catches his gaze.

“Oh…”

“Yeah…”

“What are we gonna do, Lance?”

That’s the million-dollar question.

“Right now, it’s all in our heads. We haven’t actually done anything with each other, so what if we tried and we didn’t even like it?”

“That’s true,” he says. “Like with this girl I met in San Antonio. I thought we’d have a great time, but then we kissed, and there just wasn’t any chemistry there.”

“Sure,” I say, once again fighting back that knee-jerk irritation at hearing about one of these girls he’s done stuff with.

“What if we try to mess around, see what happens, and then we’ll know for sure.”

I nod. This isn’t an erotic thing. It’s practical. We both have questions, and this is the surest way to get answers.

He licks his lips, and fuck, now I can’t take my eyes off his lips .

“Yeah,” he goes on. “Chances are we get a little grossed out and move on. But maybe it doesn’t mean anything about the two of us as much as that there could be something for guys, right?”

“Yeah,” I say, though I hate the thought that we might mess around and it won’t be as satisfying as I have a feeling it’d be. But am I really suggesting me and my Sigma Alpha rival mess around to sort this out?

I mean, it feels like the only right way to do it but also like I’m in way over my head.

“You free later?” he asks.

Oh, we’re on, aren’t we?