Page 65 of Serpent In White

“Yea… I think.” His voice sounds small and insecure, which is so unlike him, it only serves to trouble me more.

“Can I come in?” I ask, not wanting to intrude on his alone time, but I can’t help feeling like I need to watch over him every second.

“Sure,” he grumbles.

Opening the door, I step inside the room, my eyes falling to where he’s propped in the Jacuzzi tub. They widen immediately, and I slap my hands over them.

“Jesus, Darian! You’re naked!”

He laughs out loud. “Uh, yea. What did you expect, I was gonna wear my boxers in the damn hot tub?”

“What the hell, dude?? I saw your dick,” I mumble, fidgeting where I stand because now the image won’t leave my brain.

“I didn’t askyouto come in,” he points out.

“I wanted to make sure you’re alright,” I admit. “I just want to be here for you.”

“You are here for me, Drake,” he says, and I peek between my fingers to look at his face. “You’re the only one who is. You’re all I have…”

Swallowing my emotions, I’m struggling not to feel like a total chick, though I can’t help it right now. “You’re all I have, too.”

We’re quiet for a moment, some strange tension building in the air, suffocating me as if the walls of the bathroom are closing in, until he says, “Can you hand me a towel? I would just get out, but apparently, you don’t like looking at my dick.”

I force a laugh that feels harder to get out than it should and hand him the towel, leaving him alone in the bathroom.

By the time he gets dressed, I’ve ordered a pizza and picked it up from the lobby. Darian is sitting on the bed in his sweats and t-shirt, chestnut hair damp and tousled around. It has me grinding my jaw for unknown reasons while I serve us up some food. We eat in silence, watching bad TV, and by midnight, he’s passed out next to me.

I’m trying to keep as much distance between us as possible, but Darian sleeps sprawled out, taking up the whole damn bed. As I lie flat on my back, I keep my arms at my sides. And despite how loud my thoughts are, I eventually manage to fall into an uneasy sleep.

I wake up stiflingly hot in the dark. The clock across the room reads three-fifteen to my groggy eyes, and when I go to kick the blankets away from me to get some air, I realize it’s not a blanket covering me at all.

It’s my foster brother.

And not only is he wrapped around me in his sleep, but he’s sort of grinding his hips against mine. It takes only another moment for my fuzzy brain to acknowledge the hard shape he’s pushing into me, dragging in long, fluid strokes while he breathes out sharp breaths on my chest.

His hand is resting dangerously close to my crotch, my own erection so hard it’s visible through my sweats. Gulping down my shame, I look over his face to find his eyes closed, lips parted just a bit. He’s clearly sleeping, having a dream about someone else.

I’m sure it has nothing to do with me, but then that idea stabs me in the chest like a sharp blade between my ribs. He could be dreaming about a girl from school… Maybe he has a girlfriend and he just never told me.

Though the more I think about it, the more it dawns on me that Darian has never mentioned a girl to me before, ever. Even when I’ve remarked on girls we know, or celebrities I wouldn’t mind sticking my dick in, he always just laughs along and gives me that admonishing Darian headshake.

My mind is floating around all these things while he pants and writhes into me…

Maybe he’s just shy.

Or maybe he likes guys…

A memory comes back, something I never thought about until right now.

From school. I met up with Darian after practice, and I remember the smile he gave one of his teammates. His eyes lingered on the guy as he turned away…

My mouth is suddenly dry as a bone.

Darian’s gay.

Not that it matters. I wouldn’t judge him either way. Even though I’m straight…

I’m totally straight. Right?