Page 22 of Out of My Mind

The next song came on, and Gideon challenged them to dance like no one was looking. If Gideon could sway his hips and wiggle his butt, then so could Mac. He stopped caring and enjoyed himself, just as Gideon wanted.

Their friends left for the bar, but Gideon stayed put. So did Mac. The space between them narrowed. The hairs on Gideon’s arm brushed against Mac as their fingers came dangerously close to making contact. His musky cologne flitted up Mac’s nose, sending all the blood in Mac’s body to one central, inappropriate location.Thank goodness it’s dark in here!Gideon wasn’t following the byzantine rules for straight guys in dance clubs, but he didn’t seem to care.

Mac danced a little closer. He didn’t stop himself from looking Gideon up and down, taking in details like the pull of his chest against his shirt and the curve of his thigh in his tight jeans. He didn’t hold himself back from meeting Gideon’s heavy eyes, which stared right back at him with an intent that nearly made Mac punch a hole in his pants.

Fuck.

Their upper arms rubbed back and forth. Mac’s pinkie grazed Gideon’s thumb, which flicked in reaction and massaged back. Gideon licked his lips and that feeling Mac had at the party freshman year roared back into his chest. Plus a huge boner.

He wanted to man up and kiss him, but he remembered last time. He tried willing Gideon to make the damn move. He didn’t know what percent this was. Maybe there was an experiment in here about straight guys seeming gay when surrounded by other gay men.

A guy in a cowboy hat and flannel shirt had other plans, though. He snaked his arms around Gideon and grinded him from behind. Gideon’s eyes bulged out of his skull like he’d just been dumped into a garbage can full of rats.

Mac pushed the guy off Gideon with more force than he planned.

“He’s straight!” Mac shouted through his tightened jaw.

The guy surveyed who he just grinded and shot Mac a skeptical look. Gideon was a petrified piece of wood.

“He is,” Mac said firmly.

“Then why the hell is he here?” The cowboy slapped Gideon on the butt and went back to his friends.

Gideon still didn’t move. Mac wondered if he was having a heart attack. Mac’s dad used to tell him if he threw rocks at a beehive, he was bound to get stung. And if you danced at a gay bar, you were bound to get your butt slapped.

“You okay?” Mac asked him. Gideon ran off.

Mac searched for him on the expansive dance floor. Smoke machines went off, puffing out smoke across the room. He tried to make him out among the clouds. He sidestepped couples as he weaved through the heart of the floor. It was no use calling out his name. The music was too loud to hear anyone unless they screamed in your ear.

He thought he saw a recognizable tuft of unruly blond hair. But the smoke cleared, and Mac couldn’t have been more wrong.

The tuft of unruly hair belonged to a guy grinding against his ex-boyfriend. The guy leaned up and kissed Davis’s prominent chin, then his lips. Mac wanted to move, but he was caught in a web of embarrassment. The awkward moment would not release him until he received complete degradation.

“Mac?” Davis gave him a half-wave, just as unsure as Mac as what to do in this situation.

Some part of Mac’s brain had taken over manual controls. This was fight or flight, and Mac wished he could literally fly away. He didn’t know where it came from, but he gave Davis a buoyant smile and a military salute.

A military salute?

Mac got the hell off the dance floor, bobbing and weaving around guys actually having a good time. He found Gideon on line at the bar.

“You’d wig out, too, if gay John Wayne put his boner against your ass,” Gideon said. He immediately changed course when he saw Mac’s face. “What happened?”

Mac had a jumble of possible answers lodged in his throat. “I’ve been replaced.”

He shared his encounter with Davis, salute included.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Mac asked.

“Well, you know when people are in extreme situations, their brain can pick up skills and languages immediately? Maybe you acquired military-style fight training the second you saw Davis.” Gideon shrugged. “Or maybe you just freaked out like a normal human being.”

“I like your first answer.”

Gideon got them bottles of water. They went outside to the smoker’s courtyard and found a corner not shrouded in cigarette smoke.

“He wasted no time,” Mac said. “How long do you think they’ve been dating?”

“Since ‘Like a Prayer.’”