Page 46 of Out of Bounds

“Because it was funny.” Brennan fought against choking. Cliff did not enjoy delving into this embarrassing memory, but watching Brennan lose it was a pleasant side effect.

“When my teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, I stood up and proudly said that I wanted to be a virgin. Mrs. Eckert called my parents.”

Brennan howled with laughter, his whole body vibrating with joy, unafraid of causing a disturbance.

“Good times.” Brennan wiped away tears from his eyes.

“For you.” Cliff wasn’t mad. Like most anecdotes, it was humiliating in the moment, and humorous in the present. Sadly, he was worried this memory would be prophetic. How many college students were still virgins? He had catching up to do.

“I think your friendship with Alex consisted of making my life hell.”

“It was all in good fun. That’s what siblings do. I remember in middle school when Johnny Lembeck’s twin sister walked up to him in the cafeteria and kicked him in the junk because she thought boys were lying when they said it hurt.”

Cliff winced and instinctively covered his own crotch.

“If I wasn’t an only child, I would give my brother or sister hell. It’s all out of love.”

“Don’t you have step-siblings?”

“Eh, not the same thing. We’re not close.” Brennan looked down at his soup for a quiet moment, like he wanted to say something. “Alex loves you. Have you thought about coming out to him?”

Cliff blanched at the term coming out. It turned being gay into the centerpiece of his life, when it was one piece.

“He’d be cool with it.” Brennan raised and lowered one shoulder.

Alex was liberal in his views, as judged by the political conversations he had with their parents. He exhibited no hyper-masculine, homophobic tendencies that Cliff could see. But Cliff didn’t want Alex to look at him differently. They barely had anything in common as it was, and suddenly Cliff was going to launch into one of the most personal, intimate parts of himself?

Before Cliff could give Brennan a response, the waitress came over with an ice cream sundae. A warm brownie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and a cherry.

“Did you order that?”

“I felt like having a brownie and vanilla ice cream. I’m sure we’ll burn it off later.” Brennan winked at Cliff, which sent a warm current straight to his balls.

“Do you always order desserts? Are you five?”

“Fine. You can’t have any.”

Cliff’s stomach growled for the mountain of sugar in front of him. He wiped off his soup spoon and dug into the sundae. Brennan smacked his spoon away with his own spoon.

“You said you didn’t want any.” Brennan slipped a bite of brownie and ice cream into his mouth.

“I never said that.”

“Your tone said it. You disparaged my love of dessert.”

Cliff went in for a bite. Brennan pulled his plate back.

“Brennan.” He brought back his annoying kid whine.

“Clifford.”

Their spoons fought each other in a swordfight as Cliff tried to slice off a piece of sundae.

“You need to stay in shape for your big game tomorrow.”

“You’re such an asshole.” Cliff held back a smile. “It’s a good thing you’re cute.”

“Flirting with me won’t work.”