Rylan's POV
"Do you always flirt with old men?" Kyler asked, seeming amused after Chet told him I was talking up Paul for a generous tip.
"Only when I want something."
Chet leaned forward from his place on the carpet to grab his drink. "It was so impressive. He just handed him 20 dollars for no reason."
"It's cause you're pretty, old men like that."
The compliment from Kyler was nice, I liked it. But I'd like if he said he wanted to f**k me instead, it would make this process a whole lot easier. "Maybe they just fetishize asians."
Kyler titled his head towards me and gave me a slow once over. Finally, his eyes flicked up to mine. "Probably both."
My lips twitched up. "Maybe."
Being around the two of them together was more casual than the first two times I was here. Kyler was more familiar now and Chet and I were more than friendly. Still, it's hard to tell if two men who like each other like you too.
Now that I'd come to the firm conclusion that yeah, they definitely like each other, it was a lot more obvious. With the way they silently gravitated towards each and could easily finish each other sentences, it was becoming more and more apparent.
Was I confident that Chet liked me? Definitely, I just wasn't sure if he held Kyler on a much larger pedestal than me or not.
Whether the gap between us was large or not, I didn't really give a f**k. As long as Chet's at least a little interested, I can work with that. Because he's cute and I like him more and more everyday.
I could give up without facing any real repercussions. Neither of them are part of my daily life to the point where I can't avoid them, it would be easy to stop answering Chet's texts.
I'm confident he'd forget about me within weeks and him and Kyler would eventually start going out.
I'm a little selfish though, and I want him. So if I need to f**k with their relationship a little to fit myself in there, I would happily do so.
"Huh?" Chet's head bumped into my thighs when he looked up. He's been sitting between my legs ever since he sat down, yet I only just noticed that I was petting his hair.
Instead of stopping, I scratched behind his ears and enjoyed the way they flattened. "Nothing."
____
It was a little expected, but I was still surprised when Chet basically knocked out after two beers. He insisted on drinking with Kyler and I even after we both told him not to.
His nose wrinkled with each sip he took but he still proudly finished each one.
Later into the night, when Chet was snoring on the couch and Sammy was curled up on his chest, Kyler started to clean up the small mess we made. "He really sucks at drinking."
"I thought he was exaggerating when he said he couldn't drink. I just thought he didn't like it."
Compared to Chet, Kyler and I might as well have been sober. We were tipsy at best.
"Nah, he barely drinks so he never can handle more than one."
Following him to the kitchen, I threw away the two ramen cups Chet and I devoured. Kyler refused with a laugh when Chet offered him one with two eggs in it. "That's too many."
"I can eat one for you."
Kyler only ruffled his hair and refused with a somewhat fond smile. "You had six eggs this morning."
"I like eggs."
Kyler held out the grocery bag with three untouched ramen cups remaining. "Can you put these in the pantry? Anywhere's fine."
"'Course." Their pantry's big, I silently observed after walking in. Even bigger than mine, and fully stocked.
While Kyler put the rest of the beers away I tried finding a somewhat decent spot for them. "Is it okay to just leave him on the couch?"
"I'll move him later." He called back, "You guys are probably sleeping together, yeah?"
Before I could invite him to join us for something a little more than sleeping, my eyes caught onto a stack of boxes in the corner of their pantry. Ah, that's-
"What's up?" Kyler walked over after hearing my silence.
"Hm?" My head tilted towards him. "Oh, um.. you guys like ramen a lot?"
His eyes flicked down to the three boxes of assorted ramen packages in the corner, looking as if they were pushed there. "Oh yeah, Chet likes them a lot. I always keep them stocked for him."
"Yeah." I observed quietly. "Looks like you'll never run out~"
His lips twitched up. "He'd probably cry if we did."
Why did he say they were out? It was useless asking Kyler so I carefully set the leftovers on top of the stack and followed him out. Maybe he ran out of the flavors he wanted.
Kyler glanced towards Chet's unmoving body while he had a hand in his pocket, holding something. He seemed indecisive about something before finally, "I'm gonna smoke real fast, is that cool with you?"
"It's your house, I don't care."
"Thanks."
On his way out, he suddenly stopped and I stopped right behind him. When he titled his head towards me, I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, did you mean by yourself?"
His eyebrows raised as well but a quiet laugh tumbled from his mouth quickly after. "You're the guest, I don't care."
"Thanks."
Being out on their balcony reminded me of the first night we met, where I had my first real conversation with him. I decided the moment I looked at him that he was a man I wanted to f**k, but after hearing him talk so much, I needed to f**k him by any means necessary.
Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps.
I still wasn't sure whether it should happen naturally or if I should bring it up at some point. As I thought about it more, how does something like this even happen naturally.
But if it didn't, how would I bring it up?
Hey, I really like you and your roommate who I'm pretty sure you're f*****g, let's all date :)
I honestly couldn't see Chet refusing, but Kyler and I still didn't have that much of a relationship by ourselves. Sure, the physical attraction was there but we're never by ourselves. It's not like we could just f**k our feelings out either, not when we're both something with Chet.
Whatever.
"You have to get up early, don't you?" I asked, just to break the silence. Much like last time, I was sitting in the lonesome chair they had out here while he leaned against the railing.
"In a few hours, yeah."
"You should sleep soon, I can wake Chet up myself."
"I'm not really tired. Besides," he glanced at me, "you left so soon last time, we barely had time to talk."
"Talk?" I drawled. He's clearly talking about when I asked if he knew about Chet's attraction towards him. Does he wanna talk about that again? "About?"
"Doesn't matter." He shrugged a shoulder and tapped some of his ashes on the tray. "You'll probably come over a lot more now, yeah? It wouldn't hurt to be friends."
"Why will I be coming over a lot more?"
He let out a soft noise. "...You and Lucas are close, I figured you'd wanna see him sometimes."
"Oh, yeah~ I forgot about him. But, I still probably won't come over to see him."
"No?" His eyes dropped to mine as he gave a subtle tilt of his head. After blowing some smoke off to the side, "That's too bad."
I wanna kiss him.
"Mm," I agreed with a low hum, "Lucas might get a little pissy that I'm over here a lot for Chet instead of him but he'll get over it."
His lips twitched up at my response, looking almost amused.
He'd taste like cigarettes.
"He'd be happy to hear that. He gets like a little kid whenever you text him."
I let out a small noise and waved my hand around. "You should see him when he talks about you. I probably know a lot more about you than I know about him."
A soft chuckle, "He talks about me that much, huh?"
"You sound used to it."
"I am."
Leaning back in my chair, I took advantage of how dark it was to observe him. I'm sure he could see me running my eyes all over him, but I didn't mind.
He looked really relaxed, like nothing but us mattered right now.
Yeah, I really wanna kiss him.
Even when his cigarette was out, we both stayed outside and listened to a lone car driving by echo in our ears. "Y'know, he doesn't just talk about me."
"Hm?" I glanced up at him.
"He probably talks about you just as much. We've only met a handful of times but I know more about you than I know about some of my close friends."
Before I could question some of the things he's heard, he beat me to it, "I heard you're the oldest in your family, you like spicy foods a lot, you're the type to buy cupcakes from a gas station for a stranger, Chet's exactly your type, you like movies a lot and you're lactose intolerant."
I'm a little impressed. "I can't believe he told you I get the shits when I eat dairy."
"I was just as surprised."
"Besides that," I brushed off with a laugh that mimicked his, "Chet's not exactly my type, he just fits into my type."
He looked interested. "What's your type?"
"You know," I shrugged, trying to think of some at the top of my head, "Chris Hemsworth, Tae-hwan, you, just big guys in general."
He laughed again, something low yet soft. "That so?"
"Yeah, I'm not really picky though. You can't really be that picky when you're gay."
"I think it's fine to be picky. It is harder to find gay guys but when you do, it's alright to be picky. One little thing that you thought you shouldn't have been picky about can affect your whole relationship, y'know?"
I watched him for a second while he stared right back. "God, you're such a grown up."
He laughed, "You don't think so?"
"I do." I nodded. "I usually just settle though, it's easier but probably why things didn't work out."
He made a noise of understanding. "I used to do that too, back when I was in college. It was easier to meet guys but I didn't know how long it would last so I'd just sleep with whoever. I'm a lot more picky now though."
"I bet you have a checklist and everything~"
His lips twitched up into a playful smile. "You don't?"
I waved my hand around and sat up with mock interest. "Let's hear it."
"Are you ready?" At my nod, "You sure~?"
"Yes, yes. I'm waiting at the edge of my seat here."
"Well," he started off, "they have to get approval from Sammy."
I waited for approximately five seconds before raising an eyebrow. "That's it? Approval from a dog that's not even yours?"
"Hey," he pretended to look hurt, "I might as well be his second dad."
"What happened to being picky?" I sat back in my chair and tilted my head towards him.
Why can't I stop smiling?
"I think that's fairly picky. I don't bring guys home unless it's a one night stand. If I'm bringing them home to meet Sammy then I mean business." He nodded with a terribly serious expression.
"Oh really?" My smile grew wider. "He's a really friendly dog, you sure he won't just approve of anyone?"
"Well," he paused, "it's alright if he does. It's more about if his owner approves or not."
"Hm, Chet? So he's the final boss your boys have to meet before they're approved?"
"Mhm, Chet's really friendly but he doesn't like people who hang around me that much. If he likes them, then they must deserve approval."
"What if he doesn't like them? What then?"
"I've only gotten that far once, and I didn't introduce them."
"So?" I asked, "What happened?"
His stare felt heavy, like he was taking me apart with his eyes. "I think it's going well."
I shouldn't kiss him.
Instead, I stared at him for a few moments. "Is that so?" He responded with a low hum.
But I really want to.
I want to know how different it would feel to kissing Chet. I want to know if he'd take control right away, give me control, or have us both just lazily make out. I wanna know what Chet's possibly had.
I want to be able to tell Chet, 'I get why you like him so much' but right now probably wasn't the right time.
But God, I wanted to.
Before I could act out the rash thoughts, I stood up and stretched a bit. I gave him a small side glance, one look for the road, before turning towards the door. "..I get why Chet likes you so much."
"Me too."
It almost had me pausing mid step but no, I carried on and threw him a wave over my shoulder.
____
"I'm really sorry." Chet looked devastated when I finally woke up. I didn't even have time to process where the f**k I was or what time it was. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Chet's face very close to mine.
He was kneeling beside me on his small bed. "I invited you over but I fell asleep so soon." There was a permanent frown on his face. I couldn't help but reach out and lightly tap his cheek.
"Stop frowning."
This made him frown more.
"Sorry." He apologized again.
Sitting up, I patted around for my phone until I found it under his pillow. 10 o'clock. It took everything in me not to groan and roll over to go back to sleep. I usually wake up hours later.
"Stop apologizing." When I noticed he wasn't just gonna magically stop being sad, I reached out and dropped my hand on his head. He seemed to enjoy the small pets, considering how he leaned into my palm. "We can hang out some other time, okay? You can come to my place then."
"Really?" I could feel his ears perk under my hand.
"Mhm, I'll buy you some actual food too. I heard you're living off ramen and eggs."
"I like them." He mumbled but was already starting to look happier.
Cute.
"I've gotta go home but I'll text you when I wake up."
"Wake up..?"
"I'm going back to sleep when I get home."
"You can sleep here!" He insisted. "I'll be really quiet, I promise. You won't even know I'm here, that's how quiet I'll be."
Usually, I'd refuse but I could barely keep my eyes open. It was hard falling asleep last night. Chet took up most of the bed and Kyler's words kept lingering in my head.
'Me too'
'I think it's going well'
Fuck him, I got three hours of sleep because I couldn't stop thinking about how amazing our threesome would be.
Is this what it meant to let it happen naturally? There was a very large chance that he wasn't talking about me but the suggestive looks he was giving and the playful atmosphere around us said otherwise.
I also think everyone's in love with me so he could be talking about some guy he's actually brought home to meet Chet.
Just so I can keep thinking about the endless positions we could do, I'll give myself false hope and say he was hinting at me. I really hope so.
"Hey," I suddenly interrupted Chet's staring, "..does Kyler ever bring home people to meet you?.. Or Sammy?"
His head tilted, looking confused. "He doesn't ever bring his friends over so no, why?"
I really, really hope so.
"No reason." I brushed. "You really don't mind if I stay a little longer?"
"Please do." He insisted with a quick head bob.
I side eyed him for a second. He's probably gonna stare at me the whole f*****g time I sleep, might as well- "..Wanna cuddle?"
I've never seen a mans face light up that quick before.
___________
yay second update today besties
idk what to do next chapter but it's okay
okay bye ily,
maddie