Standard disclaimers apply to this story. All rights & ownership of this story are reserved by the Author.

This story is mostly fiction. Some of the situations and characters are based off people that I know or experiences I've had. However names, & locations have all been change to better suit the story. That being said this story is mostly fictional and any likenesses to any other situations are strictly coincidental.

All events that happen are completely consensual between people involved in the story. If you are not of legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now.  The author retains all rights to this story. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the permission of the author. If you're not 18, come back when you are, it'll be worth it.

 

EDITORS NOTE*

I take full blame for this chapter taking so long to get posted. Between Hurricane Irene and moving back into school, time has been scarce. I promise to be more timely with my work next time! With that said, I hope you enjoy this great chapter!

-Joe

 

Half in, Half out

"The Life of a Collegiate Gymnast"

 

Chapter 6

"You Look Better When I'm Drunk"

 

Jake and I were walking down the hall of the library to the meeting room I had reserved to do a dry run of my presentation with Jayden. I was a little nervous about seeing Jayden since we hadn't been on speaking terms since the night everything fell apart.

"Don't be nervous." Jake said as we went in.

I followed him into the room and replied, "I know. It's stupid. Just stay for a few minutes and then you can head out."

Jake set his bag on the floor and sat down. "You don't think it's going to look a little bit obvious what's going on here?"

"Probably, but I don't care." I pulled out my laptop and started grabbing my things for the presentation. I looked at my phone to see what time it was. "He's late." I noticed.

Jake looked up from his laptop. "Give him a minute." he said.

I logged onto the campus system on my laptop and started to print the handouts for the class. I was trying my best to keep myself busy and not think about what was going on between Jayden and myself. I was trying my hardest to stay calm. I checked my phone again to see what time it was. Jayden was five minutes late at this point. I knew that he knew what time we were meeting because he responded to my email a few days ago about meeting here. I pulled out my phone and texted Jess to see if Jayden had got called into work or something. She responded:

Jess: No. I just talked to him this morning and he told me he was meeting you today. Don't stress Tyler. He's calmed down quite a bit from the "incident"

Well at least now I know that he had planned on meeting me today. That helped calm me down a little.

Tyler: Alright. Do you think I should say something or just be strictly business?

"Hey Jake, I'll be right back. I've got to go get these printouts. Can you keep an eye out for me?" I asked Jake.

"Sure. Can you run and grab me a bottle of water too?"

"Alright." I walked out the room. I pulled out my phone to see if Jess had texted me back yet.

Jess: You're over thinking again. Play it by ear. Like I said. He's calmed down a bit by now.

I ran downstairs to the vending machine to get Jake's water. I looked around to see if I saw Jayden anywhere, but there was no sign of him. I was starting to get a little annoyed. We only had the room for an hour and I wanted to make sure that our presentation went off without a hitch. I stopped at the printer, grabbed the printouts and headed back to the room. I saw the door opened and felt relieved when I saw Jayden in the room talking with Jake.

"Hey." I said.

Jayden looked up and said, "Hey, sorry I'm late. I had to sub for Scooter at IFC because something came up."

"Oh..." I said and walked over to Jake to hand him his water. "That's cool, I was stilling running around and setting up anyway. Hope you don't care about Jake being here. He has a meeting with his advisor in 15 minutes so he thought he'd tag along."

Jayden shrugged, "Not at all. We'll have someone to practice in front of."

"Yeah. Jayden was just asking how training was going." Jake looked up at me with a smile. "I told him how you face planted yesterday when you bulked on your release move on high bar."

I felt my face get a little red from embarrassment. "It was nothing major." I tried to struggle a laugh.

Jayden eyed my face for a second. "Didn't seem to do any damage." He said with a smile. "So you want to get started?"

"Sure." I felt a little more at ease as we worked on things. For partners who worked on a project as big as this one and barely talked while putting it together, I was surprised with how smoothly things were running. Hopefully we could keep this momentum going to tomorrow. About midway through the presentation, Jake left to go meet with his advisor.

"Hey, I'll see ya man." Jayden said as he shook Jake's hand.

"Yeah, see ya around too. Stop by the house sometime with Jess." Jake said. I shot Jake a glare. Luckily, I was standing behind Jayden so he didn't see me.

Jayden let out a small laugh. "Yeah man, I'll see about that..." he trailed off.

"I'll see you later Jake." I said with an emphasis on the later.

Jake walked out and shut the door. With Jayden and me alone in the room, the awkwardness seemed to return. We went from talking lightly and moving along quickly to being strictly about business. We continued on laying out each other's responsibilities for tomorrow. I looked down at my phone and saw that we only had about 5 minutes left.

"Hey we should wrap up. We're almost out of time." I told Jayden.

We finished up and started packing our things. Neither of us said much. I wondered if I should've made small talk to ease the tension that had slowly came back since Jake left the room. Jayden and I walked out of the room toward the elevator. We sat there not saying much. I decided that enough was enough and finally tried to make an effort to hold some sort of conversation.

"So how is rush going?" I asked Jayden.

"Good." He replied.

"That's cool. So did you decide if you were going to be a big this semester?" I was determined to make some type of conversation happen. Yeah, we had only been friends for a month or so before that argument, but I was beginning to make peace with the fact that he was back with Ethan and I couldn't do anything about it. Besides, I was still trying to figure out everything with Nate, as much as I told myself we were just having fun. We do have great chemistry, but I knew in the back of my head Nate and I were just having fun. He still had some sort of feelings for Heath.

"Yeah." Jayden responded with another one word response. I was starting to get the hint that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Oh." Was all I said back.

I think Jayden caught the annoyance in my voice with that response. He looked at me and said, "Yeah. A few of the brothers didn't think it'd look good for the Rush Chair to not have a little so I went ahead and took one."

It felt like eternity until we were back on the first floor. I was heading to the Union to go grab a cup of coffee, when I noticed that Jayden must be going that way as well.

I turned to Jayden and asked, "You think we're ready for tomorrow?"

"As ready as we could be given the circumstances." Jayden said. I looked over at him. He looked like he had something going through his head, but didn't want to say it.

'And now it's awkward', I thought. "Okay...well I'll see you tomorrow. Want to meet like 15 minutes before class?"

"Sounds good. Make sure you dress up." Jayden said.

I shook my head, annoyed with him. "I had planned on it."

"Sounds good. See ya Tyler." Jayden said as he gave a small wave.

I was annoyed so I didn't even say goodbye. I just walked to the Union, not understanding why he was acting like that. The whole situation had happened two weeks ago. By now you would think some of the anger would have subsided. I had started to move on from it, and knew what I said wasn't nice or right, but it was a honest mistake.

I walked to the Union trying to get my mind off of Jayden. I kept telling myself, 'This is why I don't do relationships...well part of the reason.' This situation has caused me nothing but unneeded stress. Thank god this didn't happen during the season. I don't need that in the back of my head. I continued walking through the Oval on the way to the Union. The breeze of fall had taken over campus. The leaves on the trees had started to turn from bright green to nice shades of yellow and red. I loved fall here on campus. As much as I loved living in California, I do enjoy having seasons now.

I walked into the Union and made a beeline for the Cafe. I needed to sit down and clear my thoughts over a cup of coffee. After I finished ordering my coffee I headed over to an area in the back of the coffee shop to sit down, relax and not be bothered. As soon as I plugged my laptop into an outlet I heard a girl call my name. I looked up to see who it was.

"Hey Ty. What's up?" Summer asked as she walked over.

"Hey Summer." I looked up. "Can't decide if it cold or hot out or something?" I laughed at her crazy outfit. She was wearing a hoodie, short shorts and Uggs.

"Shut it. Didn't anyone tell you summer was over? `Cause you're looking a little unnatural with your skin color." She teased.

I laughed at her. "What's going on? I haven't seen you by the house as much as you used to be."

She sighed. "I know. I've been really busy this semester. I didn't realize my course load would be so massive."

"Well you did take the maximum amount allowed." I said.

Summer sat down next to me. I was thankful to have someone to talk to and help me get my mind off things. Plus, I haven't spent time with Summer in awhile. We talked a bit more about her course load. I did feel bad for her. She played around her first semester like most freshmen do, and she was paying for it now.

"So what's going on with you and Nate?" Summer asked.

I looked at her for a second, wondering how she knew about Nate and me. "What do you mean what's going on with us?"

She laughed at me. "Geez, you were drunk on Saturday weren't you?"

"Oh, I forgot that we picked you up on the way home." I said. "Yeah. I got myself hammered that night."

"I could tell. When I jumped in the backseat with you two, you were cuddled up next to each other. It was kinda cute. But then after we dropped them off, you woke up and went crazy." She laughed.

I shook my head at that. "God, don't remind me. Jake was telling me I turned up the radio loud when Wilson Phillips came on and stuck my head out the sunroof while we drove down High St."

"Uh yeah." Summer laughed as she took a sip of her coffee. "Then you grabbed me, pulled me out with you to sing, Hold On, as we drove down your street. How we didn't get pulled over is beyond me."

I put my hand on my forehead and shook my head. "I was a mess, but at least it was a goodtime!" I was a bit of a mess that night. I didn't realize how drunk I was until we got to the car. Then the drunk smacked me in the face. Jake laughed about it in the morning and told me next time he's seat belting me himself to make sure I don't do it again.

"Oh I had a blast!" Summer said. "Someday somebody's gonna make you want to...Turn around and say goodbye" Summer sang a line of the song.

I almost spit my drink out at that moment trying to hold back my laughter. That part of the night came flashing back to me. " Until then, baby, are you going to let them...Hold you down and make you cry?" I choked out while laughing.

"Hold on for one more day!" Summer laughed at me and tried to regain her composure. "Drunk Tyler is the best! I mean...I love sober Tyler. But drunk Tyler takes it to a whole other level." She teased me. "The best part was when Jake was yelling up at us saying if we got pulled over for me to flash the cop so you two wouldn't lose your scholarships."

"Well...I bet it would work." I laughed at the thought of Summer flashing a cop to get us out of a ticket.

"Probably." Summer said. "Is there anything going on with you two? I mean, I could tell there is some attraction there."

"Oh for sure there is. Nate is hella cute. It's just...it's a difficult situation. We're teammates, he's the team captain, and we're good friends. I think it would put a weird stress on the relationship." I told her. That's honestly how I felt about the situation. It sucks because Nate is truly a great guy. Maybe if the situation was different something could and probably would happen between the two of us. But for now we can't be anything other than friends.

"I know." Summer reached over and rubbed my hand. "Don't stress about it. You're already dealing with that other mess with Jayden."

I nodded. "Yeah...we met today to practice our presentation."

"Yeah Jake told me." Summer said and sighed.

I looked up at her. "What's going on?"

"Well, I came here to clear my head too." She laughed. "I know I'm probably an idiot for telling his best friend this..." She started. I moved a little closer in and nodded to let her know that it was fine to keep going. "...but I like Jake a lot. But we're both so bad at relationships I don't want to put a label on it."

I nodded. She was right. "I know what you mean. I mean, Jake and I haven't talked about it, honestly, but I know he likes you a lot. You know Jake...he doesn't just like one girl. But it's different with you." I said. I knew he really liked her and could tell he wanted to make it official, but he was scared because he's not good at relationships either.

"See, I really like him too. But this semester my course load is crazy, then next semester you guys are super busy. It's just a little daunting when you think about it."

"So don't." I shrugged. "Play it by ear for now. Why be so quick to put a label on it? You two are good where you're at right now. Keep it that way. Don't rush into it. I wouldn't." I paused for a second. I wondered what suddenly made me any good at relationship advice.

"Just know that Jake really likes you. I hate to be "THAT" friend...but please don't hurt him." I said to Summer.

"Oh, I know what you mean...Don't worry." Summer replied.

I smiled at Summer and she smiled back at me. I looked around for a second and we both laughed at the awkward silence.

Bumping into her was just what I needed. Apparently it was just what she needed too. I felt a lot less stressed about everything that was going on. It was nice to be able to talk to Summer just one on one. We're friends but we rarely hang out just alone, so it was a nice change of pace. We finished our drinks and packed up. She walked with me to the training gym to surprise Jake. When Jake saw the two of us he got a big smile on his face. I could tell he really cared about her. It was just a matter of time before the two of them decided to make things official.

 

~~~~

 

"Jake, are you done in there yet?" I called out from my room.

"Give me a sec, Ty!" Jake yelled from the bathroom.

It was the next morning and I was getting dressed for mine and Jayden's presentation today. Jake had skipped his first class of the day because he said he wasn't feeling too well this morning and wanted to rest before practice later today. I was a mess of nerves again. This time because there was so much of my grade riding on this presentation that I wanted it to go off without a hitch. I felt under prepared for today. Jayden and I barely spoke while putting the presentation together and only worked together on it for about an hour total. I just wanted to make sure we got through this together and got the best grade possible.

I heard the door open to the bathroom and saw Jake walk out. "There you go bud. Sorry, I really feel like shit this morning. Anything I can help you with?"

"No I'm going to jump in the shower now." I said.

"Alright. What are you wearing?" Jake asked me.

I pointed to the dress shirt and dress pants laying on my bed. Jake walked over and picked up the shirt, then the dress pants. "Dude, these pants need to be ironed." He said.

"I know, I'm going to do it when I get out of the shower."

Jake shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it. Go take care of that, I'll iron them for you buddy."

I looked over at Jake. He did look a little under the weather today. "You sure? You look and sound like shit. Maybe you should rest." I told him.

Jake looked over at me with a serious face and said, "Get in the shower."

I smiled back at him and ran into the bathroom to get ready. I turned on the shower and let the water hit me. The warm water felt amazing against my skin. I stood there under the showerhead and cleared my head. I was so thankful to have Jake around. He is seriously the best friend a guy could ask for. I loved that he always had my back and looked out for me. I just hope he knows how much I appreciate his friendship. I finished up my shower and stepped out into the bathroom. I dried myself off and was walking back to my room when I saw that Jake was in the spare room ironing my pants.

"Hey buddy, I'm done. I can finish that up for you." I told him.

Jake shook his head. "Just dry up. I'm pretty much done. I'm going to finish and go back to bed."

"Alright, thanks buddy."

"Not a problem. I know you'd the same for me." Jake said to me with a smile on his face.

"You know it."

I went back into my room and got ready. I checked my phone to see if I had missed any messages. I had one from Jayden that was just him making sure that I was awake. I responded to him and went back to getting ready. I finished drying myself off and slipped on a pair of boxer briefs and a v-neck undershirt. I went out to the spare room and put on my pants and shirt that Jake had ironed for me. I checked my phone one more time and saw I was ahead of schedule. Once I was finished getting dressed I checked myself out in the mirror to make sure everything looked good. 'Damn I look good!' I laughed to myself. I grabbed my things for the day and went to leave.

I stopped by Jake's room. He had his door cracked. "Hey buddy, I'm heading out. You want me to pick up something after class for you?"

"I'll let you know if I get out of bed." Jake said.

"Alright man. See you later." I closed the door and walked down the stairs.

As I drove to campus I kept replaying parts of the presentation in my head. I parked by the practice gym so that I didn't have to deal with trying to find parking spot in a garage and move my car later. The weather was crappy. It had started to rain, and you could tell it was mid-October I parked my car and started walking to our building. During my walk I felt myself become more and more calm about the presentation. We had this. I got to the study area where I was going to meet Jayden with five minutes to spare. I was reading over my notes when I looked up and saw Jayden walking down the hallway. He was just as dressed up as I was. He was looking pretty hot all dressed up in a shirt, tie, and a vest.

I looked up at him and smiled. "Hey man."

I noticed he was carrying two cups of coffee. He handed me one. "Here, just like you like it." Jayden said with a smile too.

"You clean up well." I said to him with a hopeful smile on my face.

Jayden checked me out and said, "You do too."

"Thanks." I took a sip of my coffee and smiled back at him. I was a little taken aback that he remembered how I took my coffee, but decided against looking too much into it.

We sat down and went over the last of what we needed to. I felt completely at ease going into class. I was sure we were going to pull this off. Jayden looked at his watch. "Alright, it's a few minutes to. Let's go Tyler."

"Alright" I said and stood up and straightened up my clothes. "Ready?"

"As ready as I could be. I should tell you. I hate presentations. I get nervous." Jayden said.

I laughed at him. "Well you do a good job hiding it."

"I try."

We walked into the classroom. A few people were already there. Our Professor was there sitting at the front of the class. He told us to start setting up as soon as we walked in. I handed Jayden our jump drive and started distributing the handouts. Once everyone had arrived, our Professor took attendance and gave us the floor. I took a deep breath and looked over at Jayden. He was standing in the corner looking at me and nodded to start. Things were going smoothly from the start. Jayden and I were working together well. It was a little rough at first but everything was going smoothly. You couldn't tell that we had only worked together for about an hour. Once we were about 45 minutes into the presentation things clicked. We were doing demonstrations and showing various clips. At the end of the presentation, after a quick question and answer section, we finished up. Our Professor started to clap, which led the rest of the class to do so as well.

"You two certainly set the bar high." He said to us.

"Thank you sir." We replied with smiles on our face.

He continued to compliment our presentation. I felt so relieved that things went as well as they did. It was a huge weight lifted off me. I didn't care at this point what happened between Jayden and me anymore. I wanted to be friends with him, but if he didn't want to be, that'd be alright too. I still liked him, but I had made peace with the fact that we couldn't be together. Our professor finished up class and we packed our things.

"So that went pretty great." I told Jayden as we walked out of the classroom together.

He looked over at me and smiled. "Yeah, it did. Little rocky at first but we got it together. I'm so happy to be done with this."

I looked back at him and told him, "Yeah, me too. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief..." I paused, "Well until midterms."

Jayden nodded and laughed. "I don't even want to think of midterms or finals."

It was nice to be on good terms with Jayden again, if that's what you'd call our current mutual civility. I know we barely knew each other, but at the same time, we were getting to know each other and I liked hanging around with him. We were about to head out of the building, but I noticed it was still raining.

I opened my umbrella and offered it to Jayden, "You can stand under, I've got some time so if you want, I can walk you to your next class."

"Thanks. I forgot mine. Matt had to drop me off right in front of the building so I didn't get rained on." Jayden laughed. "I actually have to head back to the house really quick so if you want to walk with me to the Union, I told my little to meet me there."

"Oh..." I was going to offer him a ride but thought better of it. I didn't want to push too much too soon. "Sure. I wanted to pick up something for Jake anyway. I think he's coming down with a cold."

"That sucks." Jayden said. "It's this damn weather. I know it's October but does it really need to be low 80s one day and high 50s the next?"

I smiled back at him. "I know what you mean. It's times like these when I miss home. I love living here and having actual seasons, but I can't take the fluctuations."

Jayden nodded, "I know what you mean."

We were almost to the Union. I thought things were going well. I figured it was as good as time as ever to try and apologize face-to-face about what happened that night.

I took a deep breath. We were in front of the Union by the doors. "Jayden."

He looked over at me. "What's up?"

"Look. I know it's done and now's probably not the best time, but I wanted to say sorry. I was a dick that night. I acted way out of line. I know I already said sorry on the phone but that was interrupted by that random girl." I laughed. "But I was pissed, and sometimes when I get mad, I say things I don't mean. Everything was happening so fast."

Jayden looked me in the eyes and didn't say anything. I felt a little nervous standing there in such close proximity to each other since we were both under my umbrella. "Look Tyler. What happened that night was just as much my fault as it was yours. I shouldn't have beat around the bush with you. But you're a tough one to figure out sometimes."

"I know." I said, defeated. "I just have to be constantly aware of who I am and what I am while I'm here."

"I get it." Jayden looked at me. "You're not the only one who has a lot going on that doesn't allow for us to be as open about who we are to strangers."

I nodded back at him. "Yeah I know...as much as I feel privileged to have the opportunity that I have and wouldn't give it up for anything in the world, sometimes the situation is fucked."

"Yeah...but, don't worry about it. Let's just agree to try and continue and work it out in the future. I'm just super busy now that I've got my little, plus there's my ongoing responsibilities to the fraternity. I'm just super busy."

"Hey Jayden. I get it." I nodded back at him. "I'll let you go inside though. Just wanted to apologize for what happened."

"Well, apology accepted." Jayden said and stuck out his hand for me to shake. "Sorry for being a douche lately."

I shook his hand and laughed at his douche comment. "It's understandable."

"Alright. I'm going to head in. I'll see you around Tyler." Jayden said to me with a smile on his face. I couldn't get over how at ease he can put me.

"Sounds good." I watched him walk away. Then I remembered about the party next weekend. " Hey Jayden!"

Jayden turned around and looked at me, "What's up?"

"We're having a party next Saturday. A pre-party to Homecoming week. You should stop by if you'd like."

"Ahh...I can't. Next week I'm going to see Eth..." He paused, catching himself. I tried my best to look like I wasn't taken aback by hearing his name. "...an." he finished.

I nodded, "Alright...that's cool. You two have fun!" I tried to sound enthusiastic for him. I'm sure he read right through me.

Jayden forced a smile on his face. "Alright...I'll try..." I turned around and started walking away from the Union. I felt like an idiot. "Hey Tyler!" I heard Jayden call from behind me. I was tempted to continue walking acting like I didn't hear but I stopped and turned around. "It's alright...you don't have to act like you're okay with it. I'm sorry."

I shook my head and waved my hand at him. "Don't worry about it."

Jayden frowned and said, "Alright."

I walked back to my car feeling like crap. I was happy we worked things out and that our presentation went well. But hearing Ethan's name come out of Jayden's mouth hurt a little bit on the inside. Hearing his name was just the confirmation of what I already knew. I was too late, and friends was all that Jayden and I could be.

Once I got back to my car, I headed to pick up some lunch for Jake and me and head back to the house. I drove up and saw that Jess was home too.

I walked in to see that she was napping on the couch. "Ty, is that you?"

"Yeah...sorry, didn't mean to wake you up." I said.

"Don't worry about it. This weather has been making me tired. You bringing lunch for the sick boy up stairs?" Jess asked me.

"Yeah. Sorry, I didn't know you were home otherwise I would've brought you something too."

Jess shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I just got back a bit ago from lunch with some of the girls."

I nodded back at her as I headed upstairs. "I'll let you go back to sleep."

"Alright...good job on the presentation. Jayden texted me saying it went well."

I smiled to myself. "Thanks." I told her as I walked up the stairs. I wondered if that was the only thing Jayden had told her.

I knocked on Jake's door to see if he was awake. I didn't hear a response so I opened it up and walked in. He was sleeping with the TV on. He looked quite peaceful. I didn't want to wake him, but I knew if he was going to try and go to practice today, he'd have to have something in him. I sat down and nudged him. "Jake." He rolled over away from me. "Jake wake up. I got lunch for you."

"Go away." He said groggily. I laughed at him. If there was one thing I've noticed after living with Jake for almost 3 years, it's that he turns into big baby when he feels under the weather. You would think he was dying.

I nudged him again, trying to wake him up. "Jake shut up and wake up."

"Fine." He said with an annoyed tone.

He sat up in the bed. "You look like hell." I told him.

"Thanks. I think I'm going to email Coach and tell him I'm not coming in today." Jake said. He opened up the bag and took out his food. "Since it's not technically the season, hopefully he won't be like, just come in and do some light conditioning."

I laughed at him and said, "Good luck with that."

Jake sighed, "I know." He took a drink of the soup I got him. "So how did it go?"

I told Jake about how well the presentation went and let him in on what happened on the way to the Union. He told me not to worry about it, just that now I knew that he was serious about being back with Ethan and it was best to try and either just be friends with him or move on all together. Jake had a point, and hearing Jayden say Ethan's name again just drove home the fact that they were together. Jake and I finished eating lunch and talked about training. Once our chat was over, I cleaned up the mess and headed to my room to change out of dress my clothes.

"Hey, go ahead and go back to sleep Jake. I'll let Coach know you aren't feeling well today."

"I just emailed him, so I should be expecting a phone call soon." Jake laughed. "But thanks buddy. I'll probably see you soon though."

I laughed at him, "Yep, probably will." knowing in the back of my head that Jake would probably have to come into practice and do a light workout, at least.

 

~~

 

That Sunday Jess, Jake, and I had finished cooking dinner and were getting ready to sit-down to eat together. It was a week before the start of Homecoming Week, and you could feel the atmosphere on campus start to turn already. Homecoming was such a big event on campus. I couldn't wait for the week to start. We are pretty busy with other obligations to the University that practices are much more laid back than normal.

Once we made our plates, we sat down around the table together. "The food looks delicious as always, boys." Jess said as she took a bite of her steak.

Jake took a bite of the salad Jess had prepared. "The salad is pretty good too."

"Thanks Jake. So are you guys ready for Homecoming week?" Jess asked.

We both nodded back at her. "So are you still thinking we should have a Homecoming week kickoff party?" Jake asked.

"Sure, why not?" Jess stopped eating for a second. "I think it could be a lot of fun. Plus we haven't really had anything here since the cookout turned into a kegger."

Jake laughed at what Jess just said. "Yeah. That was a great time too!" He paused for a second. "Well...I could've done without Aaron getting wasted and passing out in my bed, but other than that it was a good time."

"So it's settled then." Jess told us. "We can go ahead and throw out invites and start planning it."

"Sounds good. I kinda already thought we were going to so I invited Jayden..." I said with a frown on my face. "But he's going to visit Ethan that weekend."

Jess made a sad face. "Don't worry about it. Like you told me earlier this week, at least you're to the point where you can try and be friends now."

"Yeah man. Plenty of fish in the sea!" Jake added.

I laughed at him and we continued to work out the details of the party this weekend. We had decided we'd just invite the team and they could bring whomever and hopefully it would be a goodtime. Eric likes to mess around with these turntables his parents got him so we decided we would let him be the DJ. We finished eating dinner and were sitting around finishing off our bottle of wine when Jess piped up.

"So...do you think we should invite Heath?" Jess asked as she looked at me.

"Sure, why not?" I took a drink from my wine. "I mean, if I can try to be friends with Jayden, Nate should try and do the same with Heath."

"Good point." Jake added.

Jess took a drink. "Well, I'm just saying...'cause you know with everything going on between Nate and you."

"That was just us being drunk and stupid. Like I've told Jake, Summer, Chase, and you. We're just really close friends. That's it." I told her. I was starting to get tired of having to repeat that he and I were just friends to everyone. "I know not to do anything stupid."

"Good man Tyler. Good man." Jake said.

"I'm just asking Tyler. Don't get snippy." Jess said. "So we'll text Heath and invite him."

"Will do." I pulled out my phone and opened up a new message.

Tyler: Hey Heath. This is Tyler, Nate's friend and the guy who you spilt water all over last week at South Star... lol. The roomies and me are having a party this Saturday night to kick off Homecoming week. You should come! Bring whoever you'd like.

I put my phone back down on the table. We finished and started cleaning up. Jake and I were doing the dishes in the kitchen when he bought up Heath again. "Hey Ty, how cool would that be if Heath had someone he could set you up with?"

I thought about it for a second. "That could be cool. But we hardly know him."

"So?"

"I'm just saying. The first close attempt at getting with someone in 3 years other than a hookup kinda blew up in my face."

Jake stopped washing the dishes and rolled his eyes, "True..."

"I'll be fine Jake." I tried to convince him and myself. But truth be told, I was starting to get tired of being single and jerking off could only be so fun.

"Well I'm just saying, if you need a hand..." I looked at Jake confused. "That came out wrong." Jake laughed. "I'm just saying, just trying to help you out here."

I laughed at him. "I know."

Jake nudged me in the arm, "Besides, I'd ruin you."

I looked over at Jake. He had a smile on his face. "I'm sure you would Jacob."

"Don't use my government name on me Tyler Savino."

"Hey, hey, hey!" I laughed back at him.

We finished cleaning and headed to the living room to watch TV with Jess. She was making us watch episodes of Glee since she says we make her watch boy TV all the time. During the middle of an episode I felt my phone vibrate.

Heath: Hey man... thanks for the invite. I close that day so I probably won't get out till like midnight.

Tyler: Don't worry. I'm sure the party will still be going.

Heath: You sure Nate is okay with it?

Tyler: Who cares? haha... 'm sure he'll be fine.

Heath: Alright. I'll see what I can do...thanks for the invite. Stop in sometime.

Tyler: No problem. Keep me updated on what's going on. What's your last name, I can add you on facebook.

Heath: Sure thing.. Heath Bennet... I know you guys have to add people since you can't have open profiles or whatever.

Tyler: Yeah... it's kinda stupid. Sounds good bud. Hope to see ya this weekend!

Sitting there, I thought about how fun this party could be. We had a pretty calm weekend this week, and with Homecoming coming up I couldn't wait to let loose a little bit. Plus, I was excited at the possibility of having a party here. If we could at least get Heath and Nate talking again I'd be satisfied. I could feel that there was something there between Nate and me but I had to continue to push it away because I didn't want to make a mistake. Eventually, I started to get tired and turned in for bed.

 

~~~

 

The next few days went on as normal as usual. It was a nice change of pace now that Jayden would actually say hi to me. We didn't speak much in class but at least now we were talking. Wednesday after class, we were walking out of the building and I was heading toward my car to grab my books for my next class when I realized Jayden was still walking with me.

"What's up Jayden?"

Jayden shrugged at me. "Just feel like going for a walk."

I laughed at him. "A walk in the same direction as me?"

"Can't you see when someone just wants to talk?" Jayden asked, getting defensive. "Just killing some time and thought you might want some company. I can leave if you want."

"No you're fine." It was nice to see things slowly going back to the way they were when we first met. "So what's up? You ready for this weekend?" I don't know why I asked him that. I didn't want to hear about his weekend or Ethan.

"Yeah..." He said hesitantly.

"Jayden...look..." I took a deep breath. "I like you. There I said it. But I get that we can only be friends. I'm trying my best here." I felt a huge weight taken off of my shoulders as soon as I was finished.

"I know Tyler. Trust me. I felt horrible after what happened."

"But we can try and make a friendship work, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, I feel the same way. You were fun to have around I guess." Jayden nudged me in the arm. "I guess I'm ready for the weekend. I am going up to surprise him Saturday night. He doesn't know I'm coming."

"Oh?" I wondered why he wanted to surprise him. We had gotten to the parking lot and I reached into my car to grab my other books. "What's the surprise for?"

"Oh, I don't know. Kinda felt like doing it. I work in the morning Saturday so I'm heading out there as soon as I get off."

I nodded. Jayden was such a good guy. I was happy that we were back to trying to be friends again. I hope Ethan doesn't hurt him this time. He doesn't deserve a guy as great as Jayden. We walked back towards campus so I could go suffer through another 90 minutes of Nutrition. Jayden and me continued talking about the weekend and Homecoming coming up. He told me that they were having a party Saturday night and I should come over. I told him I'd think about it. Once we got to my building I stopped in front of the steps and turned toward Jayden.

"Well, hey I'm going to head in. Hope you have a great weekend with..." I hesitated, "Ethan. Too bad you couldn't come to the party."

"Yeah man, too bad. Just know if I wasn't going I'd stop by. I know some of the guys are coming with Matt." Jayden told me. "Have a great weekend bud." He smiled back at me.

I nodded, "Yeah, you too man. See ya." I gave him a small wave and headed to class.

Nutrition was as boring as could be, as usual. I tried my best to pay attention but it just didn't work. I tried to pay attention, as I was an athlete and felt like I should have some knowledge about healthy nutrition. But this class took it to a whole other level of boredom. After class I caught a quick bite to eat and headed to the practice gym for practice. For the most part practice went by pretty fast. All of the guys were excited for the party this weekend. We finished up the last of our rotations and circled up as we do at the end of every practice to hear from our Coach.

"Alright guys. As you know Homecoming week is coming up." Some of the guys cheered to that. "Now, I want to have fun as much as you guys do, but remember...you have a responsibility to the university." He looked around. We nodded at him. "Especially those of you on scholarships." I am sure he had heard about the party, so this must've been the 'Don't get stupid' talk. "So have fun, but be safe and responsible this weekend." Coach said sternly. "Also don't forget, all of you guys are responsible to be at the parade Friday, wear university wear everyday starting Monday, attend the athletic tailgate pregame, be in the student section for the game, and also the athletic director is setting up a interview with the schools newspaper and other outlets. Doing the interview is going to be, Nathan, Tyler, Jake, Eric, and a Sophomore or Freshman that will decided amongst the coaching staff."

"Thanks Coach." Nate said.

"We'll try not to sound too embarrassing." Eric added.

Coach laughed at that. "Great. So that means dumb and dumber over there are going to be the ones trying to make us look good." Coach was obviously talking about Jake and me.

"Hey!" I laughed back at him.

"Just playing around Tyler." Coach said with a smirk on his face. "But in all seriousness. You know how these things go, so it'll probably be about 5 minutes of random questions. It's going to be a nice start to get you guys comfortable talking with the media again as the season approaches." Coach said. "I'll have more details for you by Saturday mornings practice. I'll let you guys go. But remember what I said about being responsible. I need to see Nate, Tyler, and Jake in my office after practice." Coach said. I was a little worried, but I'm sure he was just going to warn us again to behave at the party. "Don't worry, you guys aren't in trouble." With that Coach left the floor to us. We finished up with a huddle and headed for the locker room.

Once everyone else went to the locker room the three of us went to see what Coach had to talk to us about. Like I had thought, he knew about the party and was glad that we we're trying to bring to the team together. He just wanted to make sure that things don't get too out of hand and for us to keep an eye on the underclassmen. We assured him that we'd be making sure no one got into trouble. As we were leaving his office, Coach told us to have a shot for him. We laughed along with the other coaches at that comment.

After the quick meeting we headed to the locker room to pack up. Nate called out to the guys to get their attention. "Hey guys! Tyler and Jake have an announcement."

Jake and I walked to the center of the locker room. I spoke first. "Just a reminder to everyone about Saturday night. Everyone is invited. Eric is going to DJ and there will be plenty of booze. You can bring people, just don't get crazy with how many you bring."

"Yeah." Jake added. "Also, alcohol isn't free so if you all want to kick us a ten or something to help cover the cost that'd be awesome. We don't want to make this BYOB but..."

Nate cut Jake off. "Basically, don't be a cheap ass you guys. Be sure to kick them some money."

"What he said." I added.

Most of the guys laughed and said it wouldn't be a problem. I grabbed my bag and headed out of the gym to my car. It was starting to get dark outside earlier now, which sucked. I felt like my whole days were stuck on campus. But when I thought about it, they were. I walked out to my car with Nate.

Once we got to my car I turned to Nate and asked him, "Hey man, do you want to come with me Saturday morning after practice to go buy the booze for the night?"

"Yeah man. That sounds good." Nate said.

I threw my bag in the back seat and opened the front door to get into my car. "Alright. Sounds like a plan then."

"Yep. Later Ty." Nate told me as he walked back to his car.

"See ya Nate." I waved to him and jumped into my car.

That night Jess told us she had to work during the day and wouldn't be home until 7 the night of the party. We tried to do some cleaning that night to get ready. Jess told me what I already knew about some of Jayden's brothers coming to the party. She told me she was excited because Matt told her he had a surprise for her. I'm sure they were just going to make it official that night, but I was interested to see what he had planned.

Saturday came faster than I thought. I expected that the last few days of the week were going to drag by in anticipation to our party. Practice was pretty laid back. We didn't do anything too challenging. I mostly worked on conditioning with Aaron upstairs on the track. Jake and Nate were together on the tumble track working out some of their new passes.

Aaron and I decided to take a break from conditioning and stopped against the railing looking down at the gym. "So you excited for tonight?" I asked him.

"Yeah!" Aaron said excitedly. "A few of us freshman have gone out together a few times, but the cook out was a blast so I hope this is the same."

"It should be a good time."

Aaron laughed and said, "Plus I know better this time."

I looked at him confused for a second and asked, "What do you mean?"

Aaron rolled his eyes at me and said, "Don't get drunk and pass out in Jake's bed."

"Oh yeah. He'll kill you if you do that again." I laughed. "Maybe we can hook you up with one of the girls from the girls' team that are coming. You have any luck in that area so far?"

"Um..." Aaron sounded a little uneasy for a second. "Just really haven't had time with training and hanging out with the guys. Relationships have always been on the back burner for me."

"Yeah I hear you on that..." I looked at him for a second trying to figure out why he sounded a little uneasy. He was kind of a shy go so I figured he was just caught off guard by the question. "Doesn't get any easier as times goes on."

Aaron was looking at me like he was trying to figure something out. "Yeah. I bet. Have you had any luck this year?"

I laughed at him. "My extracurricular activities outside the gym have been a fucking mess this year if you know what I mean."

"That blows."

"Sure fucking does. Jerking off gets boring." I joked with him.

Aaron looked a little shocked that I was so forward at that moment. He paused for a second and said, "Hell yeah. I know what you mean."

We continued to talk for a little bit before our Coach called us to the floor. "Alright guys. Today's practice was laid back for a reason. With homecoming next week, you guys will be spending less time in the gym than usual. But know this. After homecoming week we buckle down. Don't forget we have our first training camp mid-November. Then that puts us a little over a month out from our first inter-squad meet & competition season. So enjoy the next few days. But come the following Monday. Be ready to work."

The whole team paid attention closely. Coach finished talking to us about what was going on for next week and gave us a print out of our itinerary of events. It was going to be a busy week, but I was excited. Once practice was over the guys hurried back to pack up. Everyone was excited for the party tonight. Jake, Nate, and I had driven to practice together so we could go shopping for booze after practice was over. As we drove to the liquor store we discussed the upcoming week.

Once we got to the store, Nate went to go see how much it would cost us to rent a keg for the night while Jake and I looked at different bottles to buy. "So, are we going to tell him we invited Heath or we just going to leave that up to a surprise?" Jake asked.

"Shit!" I almost dropped a bottle of vodka on the ground. Jake had caught me off guard. "I completely forgot about that."

Jake laughed. "Be careful! You break it, you buy it!"

"I know, I know." I put the bottle back on the shelf. "What do you think we should tell him?"

"Well I don't know. Let's just flat out tell him. We went to South Star and we bumped into Heath." Jake said as Nate walked up to us.

"What's up?" Nate asked.

"... Oh, nothing." I said trying to cover up the conversation. "How much for the keg?"

"Going to cost about 100 for beer, deposit and tap." Nate said.

"Nate, Ty has something to tell you." Jake said with a smile on his face.

"Oh you asshole!" I shot Jake a glare. Jake was smiling back at me. "Well, not just me..."

"What?" Nate cut me off.

"We wanted to tell you something..." I paused for a second trying to figure out how to say I had bumped into Heath...twice, got his number, and had invited him to the party. "Well there's no easy way to say this other than just coming out and say it. Heath is coming to the party possibly."

Nate was quiet for a second then calmly said, "It'll cost about one fifty for the keg, tap, and booze in there."

Jake and me looked at each other than back at Nate confused. "Uh buddy..." Jake tapped his shoulder. "Did you hear what Ty just told you?"

"Yeah." I added. "You're not really responding how..."

"I'm processing." Nate said coldly.

"Okay. Well we'll go put the deposit down for that while you process." I told him. Jake and me walked off to the counter. "Good job on that one Jake."

"Well you were going to beat around the bush...and how was I supposed to know he was going to turn into a robot?"

I nudged him as I saw Nate coming back up to the counter with a couple of bottles of various liquors. "Here." He handed Jake and me the bottles. "Can I have the keys? I'm going out to the car."

I looked at him for a second. He didn't seem too mad about what we just told him. He just seemed indifferent if anything. "Sure. I'll just unlock it."

"Alright sounds good." Nate walked out the door.

"Woah..." Jake said. "Do you think he's pissed at us?"

"I don't really know. We can talk about it at lunch. I don't think he's mad. I think we just caught him a bit off guard."

We finished paying for everything and went back to the car. Nate had seemed to calm down a bit. We loaded the keg into the back of my car and headed to B-dubs to grab some food. No one really talked much on the way there. Once we were sitting down I had enough of the awkward silence.

"Nate, are you pissed?" I asked him.

"No...just caught a little off guard. I didn't know you knew Heath."

"I don't. It's a long story."

I explained to him how the night that Jayden and I went out to dinner and a movie a few weeks ago, we had gone to South Star to eat. I told him I didn't remember until the following day when I was talking to Jess and put two and two together. Then Jake explained to Nate how for family dinner Jess, he, and I went to South Star to go check him out. We told Nate it was out of curiosity more than anything.

"I was just interested to see him myself that's all." Jake told Nate. "But, if it's any consolation, It seemed like he at least missed your friendship."

"I thought you still cared about him?" I asked him.

"I do...I think I do?" Nate said to us. It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than us. "It's been a long time since everything that happened. A lot has changed." Nate said cautiously. I was starting to get the feeling Nate and I were going to have a talk about "us". "I'm not mad. I appreciate it you guys. He's a great guy. I'm actually glad you and Jess did that. I don't think I would've gotten the courage to actually go see him by myself."

I felt a little relieved hearing that. "Well, you're welcome?" I said to him. "It's not a 100% sure thing that he's coming. I texted him a few days ago and let him know what was up. He said he has to work today but he would try."

"See. I told you everything was going to go well, Tyler. You worry too much." Jake tried to add into the conversation.

"Shut up Jake." Nate and I said at the same time.

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't gang up on me. This was as much Tyler and Jess' idea as it was mine." Jake laughed at the two of us. "We're not saying you guys gotta get back together or anything. But no reason you can't try and be friends."

"Yeah." I added.

"Alright. Well, we'll just play it by ear today." Nate forced a smile onto his face. "I texted Chase while you were in the store. He said it's about time someone did something."

Jake and I both smiled at each other feeling like we had done something good. "Anytime buddy." Jake said.

We finished eating and any awkwardness that had happened was now gone. After lunch we dropped Nate off at his place and headed back to the house. We unloaded the car went to finish setting up. I was excited for the party to finally start. I kind of wish Jayden would've been able to stop by, but I had to accept we were just friends. Jake and I finished setting everything up around mid-afternoon. I was feeling pretty beat from this morning so I headed up to my room to crash for a little bit.

I woke up sooner than I thought I was going to because my phone was vibrating next to me. I was slightly annoyed because I was hoping to sleep a little longer than I did. I rolled over to see who it was.

Jayden: Hey bud. Sorry I can't make it. Hope it's a good time. I'm sure you guys will have a blast... keep an eye out for your friend Aaron!! lol..

Any feeling of being annoyed was gone as soon as I read Jayden's text. It was nice to see him making an effort to be friends again. I texted him back and got out of bed. I decided I would start getting ready for the night since it would be here before I noticed. I jumped in the shower and started to figure out what I was going to wear. Once I got out of the shower I wrapped a towel around my waist and went back to my room to get dressed. Jake had woken up and was getting ready to jump in the shower. Once in my room I grabbed a button up and a pair of jeans. I put them on and thought it looked good enough for the night.

The time from when I finished getting ready passed by fast. Before I knew it, it was 8 o' clock. Jess had been home for an hour now and was getting ready herself. Jake and I were downstairs waiting for Eric, Nate, and Chase to get there so we could set up where Eric was going to DJ. Once they finally showed up, Eric hurried and set up everything. It was about a half hour before we posted on facebook for people to start coming. A group of us gathered in the kitchen. Summer had come in a few minutes ago with a bottle of Ciroc.

"Let's do a shot to kick off the party before everyone gets here!" She said excitedly. Always the party girls, her and Jess grabbed a bunch of shot glasses and started pouring.

"To a great party and an even better Homecoming!" Jess said as she passed out the glasses. In the room was Eric, Chase, Summer, Nate, Jess, Jake, and me. We cheered and all took our shots.

"And...the night is getting started!" Jake said excitedly as he swung an arm around Summer. The two of them looked cute together.

Eric went to the front room and started playing some music. I did one final check in the mirror to see how I looked. I really liked what I was wearing tonight. I thought the blue in my button up made me look even more tan than I was. Jess and I checked each other out and headed back to the kitchen. Nate saw us and followed us in.

"Lets do one more shot." I said.

Nate and Jess looked at me with big eyes. "That's what I'm talking about!" Nate said as he gave me a high five.

Jess poured 3 more shots from Summer's bottle and again we cheered. The second shot got me feeling pretty good. "It's going to be a night!" Jess said. "I can't wait till Matt gets here!"

"Yeah it should be a good time." I said. Nate and I were standing close to each other. I didn't realize how close we were until our arms touched. "Oh! And I can't wait till Heath gets here too!"

I felt Nate stiffen up as soon as Jess said that. Nate swallowed and said, "I'm excited. I hope he comes. But I'm nervous as fuck about it."

"Don't be buddy." I tried to make him feel a little bit calmer. I gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

We joined the rest of the group in the front room. Around 10 people started to arrive. All the freshman and sophomores arrived in a big group. Most of us upperclassmen teased them. By 11 the house was getting pretty crowded with people. I was surprised by the turn out. Jake and I were making rounds making sure everyone was having a good time. Jess and Summer were attached at the hip and Nate spent most of his time bouncing between everyone, also making sure everyone on the team were hanging out with each other. I even saw him trying to play matchmaker with a few of the guys with some of the girls from the girls team.

"Let's play a game of flip cup." Jake said. "How about the girls team versus the guys team?"

"I'm game." I said. Jake and I gathered up a few of the guys and girls and set up the game. "Alright, since not all of the girls are here, you get to take your pick of which one of us you guys get to play against." I told them.

Chelsea and some other girls picked out 10 of us. They did a good job picking a mix. Naturally, since it was our house, Jake and I were both playing. We lined up and got ready to play. Jake would start us off and I would be finishing up. At the count of three Eric changed what he was playing to 'Raise Your Glass' by Pink and we were off. We were winning until we got to Aaron, who was having some trouble. Once he finally got it over the girls had all but beat us with only two more to go. The guys did their best but we lost that round. It was a good game and got everyone loosened up.

A few minutes later the door opened and in walked Matt with Scooter and a few other brothers I recognized from the party a few weeks ago. Jess made a beeline over to them to welcome them over. I thought about not going over because I was unsure about how they felt about me after the whole thing with Jayden, but I figured 'What the hell?' and went to say hi to everyone. Most of them were nice, though Scooter was a little standoffish at first.

"Hey man, any word from Heath?" Nate had come up to me and whispered in my ear.

I checked my phone but all I had was a bunch of messages from people either saying they were on their way to the party or they had just got here. "No man. Not yet. But he said he wouldn't know for sure for a few hours. Let's go have another shot." I figured that would help make him feel a little easy.

Nate frowned a bit. "Yeah lets go ahead!" As we walked to the kitchen where we were keeping all the booze, Nate recruited a few of the freshmen. "Alright guys. We're doing shots. Get ready."

I laughed and poured a bunch of shots. Handing them out I gave one to Aaron and teased him. "Now make sure this one actually gets in your mouth."

"Asshole." He laughed back at me.

"Alright guys, here we go! Here's to your first homecoming week. Hope you guys are ready!" Nate said.

We all took the shot. I laughed looking at some of their faces. "Oh you guys have a long way to go if those were bad for you." I teased them. Some of them walked out and I threw my arm around Aaron's shoulder. I was feeling pretty buzzed at this point. I asked him, "So you find any talent you like out there?"

"There is some potential I see." He said.

"Well shit son. Let's go get you some!" I laughed at him. "You better do work!" At that moment Jake had walked in with Summer.

"Yeah! Do work son! Oh yeah!" He hollered out to Aaron. "I don't know what we are talking about but you better!" He said a little more calm. Aaron smiled back at him. "So when we going to go tear it up, Ty? I'm ready to dance. And so is she!" He nodded his head toward Summer.

"Yeah Ty. I'm ready for you to bust out your moves!" Summer said. "I wanna Jersey Turnpike and fist pump with you." She laughed at us.

I shook my head with a smile. "Alright then, lets go!"

As we walked out to the front room people were dancing pretty hard. I still thought it was a little crazy that I was napping in this exact same spot a few hours ago and now we had people playing beer pong in the dining room, doing shots in the kitchen, outside smoking, and dancing in the front room. Our house had become a frat house. Eric switched up the song and started playing David Guetta's 'Sexy Bitch" as we walked to the center of where people were dancing. As soon as the chorus dropped people started dancing like crazy. Jake, Summer and I were dancing together in the center of the room when I felt someone come from behind. I turned around and saw Jess. She had her hands on my waist as her and Matt danced together as well. I turned around. She had a big smile on her face.

I looked at her for a second. "What?"

"I'll tell you in a second! Lets dance!" She said in my ear.

The three of us were dancing with Jake and Summer next to us. I leaned in and started singing the song to her, "She's nothing like a girl you've ever seen before, Nothing you can compare to your neighborhood ho, I'm tryna find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful..."

Jess had a big smile on her face and pulled me into a hug, "I love you Ty Ty!"

"Love you too!" At this point I was feeling pretty drunk. We finished dancing to the song and Matt, her, and me headed towards the kitchen. "Lets do one last round of shots before I call it a night on drinking!"

"No way man, you can't be done yet!" Matt said.

"I'm feeling pretty buzzed right now!" I told him.

"Light weight!" He teased me.

I playfully hit him on the arm as Jess poured 3 more shots. 'Rude Boy' came on and she started dancing with the bottle. "Apparently she's almost done too!" Matt laughed at her. We took the shot. 'Yep.' I said to myself. 'That was definitely my last shot of the night'.

"Bad ass party man!" Matt leaned into and told me.

I nodded back at him. "Thanks. Glad to know you guys are having a goodtime!"

"Yeah not a problem!" He said as he poured us two beers from the tap. "Sorry about Jayden and you..."

I shook my head, "Don't even worry about it."

Matt shrugged. "Yeah I guess. He's an idiot. I like you a lot more than fucking Ethan." He laughed.

I laughed at him and took a drink of my beer. "Thanks...I think." I turned to Jess. "So what did you have to tell me?"

"So..." She smiled up at him. Matt was smiling down at her. Jess seemed to genuinely like him. "We've made it official!" Matt leaned down and kissed her.

"That's awesome!" I said. I cheered Matt and Jess. "I'm happy for you two!" I said with a smile on my face.

Matt stuck out his hand for me to shake. "Thanks man. She's a handful, but I think I can handle her." He laughed.

Jess rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever. Now I've gotta worry about all these sorority whores!"

Matt rolled his eyes and said to her, "Look who I have to compete with!" He laughed. "These are the guys you hang out with?" He teased her.

I just laughed and shook my head. "Well I'm happy for you two!" I pulled them into a group hug.

The party was going great and everyone seemed to be having a goodtime. Around 2:15 I walked over to Eric and let him know we should probably start closing it down for the night. He nodded and started to slow up the music. As people started to leave Jake and I had parked ourselves at the front door. I felt like I was pretty wasted at this point so people were saying bye and hugging me that I've never met. By 2:45 mostly everyone was gone. There were a few of the guys and girls left from the team. Jess and Matt had gone back to her room. Jake, Summer, and I headed to the kitchen.

"God. I don't want to fucking clean this tomorrow." I told Jake.

Jake shook his head. "I don't even want to think about this mess."

"There goes our security deposit." I laughed back at him.

"Oh you two..." Summer said. "I had a great time...I have this guy to thank." Summer smiled up at Jake.

Jake sorta shrugged, "Well, I am pretty awesome. Isn't that right Ty?"

"Well..." I said acting like I had to think about it. "Of course he is! That's why he is my best friend."

Jake smiled back at me. "Aw, alright come here bro! Time for some bro love!" Jake pulled me into a hug. He was squeezing me with all his might so I squeezed him back. Summer tapped us on the shoulder. We both gave her the one moment sign and continued hugging while laughing.

"You don't interrupt bro love!" I said.

"Yeah!" Jake said while laughing. We let go of each other.

"Well. There's still some more of my bottle left so lets finish it off!" Summer said. I made a face trying to show I was done drinking. "Shut up. It's not that much."

"Where did Nate go?" I asked Summer.

"I think he is actually upstairs. He said he was pretty drunk and needed to lay down. I told him we had blown up the air mattress in case anyone wanted to crash in the spare. So I'm assuming he's up there." Jake told me.

Summer handed out the last of the shots. After taking that last shot I knew it was time for bed. I told the two of them goodnight and took off my shirt before heading upstairs. Jake told me he would take care of the downstairs before heading up to bed. I hugged the two of them and went upstairs. I walked into my room and turned on the light. To my surprise I saw Nate there laying in my bed only wearing a pair of my shorts.

'Great.' I said to myself as I threw my shirt on the floor and looked through my drawers for a pair of shorts to wear to sleep. I figured he was probably just as drunk as I was when he landed up here. I tried to change as quietly as possible. I figured I would just sleep on top of the covers so nothing happened.

"Is that you Tyler?" Nate asked kind of groggily.

"Yeah buddy. How'd you end up here? Where's Heath?" I asked him.

Nate reached over and grabbed his phone from the floor and threw it at me. It hit me on shoulder. "Read what he wrote me." I looked at the phone.

Heath: Hey... long time no talk. I just wanted to say I really wanted to come tonight but I got cold feet. I didn't want the first time we met since we broke up to be at a party where you or me could possibly get drunk... I'm sorry. Call me...

"Well that's not too bad buddy." I told him trying to sound hopeful. "He had a good point too apparently with your drunk ass." I laughed at him.

"Yeah I guess..." Nate sounded a little disappointed. I went and closed the door and turned off the lights. The only light coming in was from a street light through my window.

I sat on the edge of my bed. "Seriously, did you go through my dresser to find a pair of shorts?"

"I can't sleep in jeans." He laughed back at me. "Should I go sleep on the air mattress?"

I shook my head at him. "Nah don't worry about it. Plus, I'm sure it will be alright with Heath." I felt Nate sit up and move close to me. He put his hand on my face. "Nate..." I said.

"Shut up." Nate said.

"I just don't think.." Nate was kissing me at this point. "I don't..." He pulled me on top of him. I gave up fighting him.

I started kissing him back just as hard. I rubbed my hands over his muscular body. He must've just shaved cause I could feel the stubble from his chest hair as I ran my hands over his chest. I stopped my right hand on his chest and tweaked his nipple. This caused him to thrust his hips into me.

"I like that." Nate moaned up to me.

He pulled me back down to his lips and we continued to make out. I was resting on top of him. I felt his hard-on through his shorts and started to grind my own hard-on against his. Nate threw his legs around my waist pulling me even closer. We were both breathing heavy.

"You're hard..." I said to him.

Nate smiled and sat me up. I was staring down at him as he ran his hand over my body. The touch of his rough hands felt get against my muscular body felt incredible. His hand traced my six-pack. His hand reached under my waistband and grabbed my hard dick.

"And so are you." Nate said devilishly. I moaned in pleasure as he started to stroke my dick. Precum was leaking off the tip of it. "How big are you?" He asked me.

"Eight..." I moaned out as he gave a hard tug. "Fuck that feels good." I leaned down and kissed him again. "Time to see what you're working with." I sat back and ripped his shorts down. His dick sprang from his shorts and slapped his chest. "That looks tasty." I said.

I leaned down and started kissing Nate. I made my way down his body, stopping at both nipples and giving them a squeeze with my teeth. Nate moaned in pleasure. I grabbed his dick in my hand. He was smaller than me. Probably anywhere between 6 1/2 to 7 inches but he was thick. I gave it a few strokes and then put my lips around his dick.

"Fuck!!" Nate moaned in pleasure.

I licked the head of his dick and started going to work on it. I haven't given head in a while so I wanted to make sure I did a good job. I worked my mouth around his dick. It was a struggle at first but I eventually got it all the way in my mouth. I was moving pretty fast up and down when Nate pulled me up.

"You're getting me close." He said as he breathed heavily. "Turn around so we can sixty nine each other." Nate said.

I turned my body and felt Nate put his lips around my dick. A rush of pleasure went through my body. Nate was sucking my dick like a pro. He licked the top of my head and trailed all the way down to my balls. He slipped one of my balls in my mouth than the other. I was thrusting my hips into his mouth. My hands were exploring his body. My hand found his hole and I pushed against it teasing it. This caused Nate to go crazy and he started sucking up and down faster which made me suck his dick hard.

I was getting close to cumming and I could tell he was too. I started jerking and sucking him off at the same time. My breathing was getting heavy and I wanted us to cum at the same time. I pushed my middle finger a little harder against his hole.

Nate moaned, "Oh fuck... Tyler I'm going to cum!"

As soon as he said he was going to cum, I felt his dick get thicker and start to shoot stream after stream into my throat. The sensation of him cumming and sucking my dick at the same caused me to lose it.

"Fuck!" I said out loud.

I started to cum. Nate must've shot 5 thick shots of cum as I sucked every last drop. I felt my dick spasm as the last of my cum shot into his throat. I sat there for a second and pulled my finger from Nate's hole. He groaned in pleasure. I came up by him. He had a smile on his face and I just laughed. I could taste his load in my mouth. I leaned down and kissed him. I stuck my tongue out and felt his massage mine. I could taste my cum in his mouth.

I rolled over on Nate's side and faced him. We both had a smiles on our faces. I looked him in the eyes. He just looked at me and shook his head. I turned around and Nate threw his arm over me pulling me into his arms. I kissed his forearm and laid there getting comfortable. I could feel his dick against my ass crack. It felt good to be laying there in bed with someone. I felt myself quickly falling asleep in Nate's arms.

The sun was bleeding into my room through the windows when I woke up. I tried to collect my thoughts. My head was screaming at me and my mouth was dry. It took me a second to realize that I was in my bed with someone. I turned around and saw Nate. 'What the fuck?' I asked myself as I tried to put everything together. Then I quickly realized I was naked. I looked under the covers and saw Nate was too. "Fuck!" I whispered out loud. I tried to remember what happened last night but it was a bit of a blur. I remembered taking a shot with Summer and Jake and saying I was going to bed but that was it. I slowly moved to the edge of the bed trying my best not to wake up Nate. He stirred a bit. I slipped on a pair of shorts that were on the floor and searched for my phone. I found it on the ground next to Nates. I checked to see what time it was. It was 10:30 in the morning. I saw I had some text messages from last night. I opened up the message icon and it said I had one from Jayden that came in at 4 that morning.

Jayden: You were right. I'm a fucking idiot. He was cheating on me... again! We just got into a big fight and I'm driving home right now. I can't believe him. I feel like such a fucking idiot. I'm sorry...

I slapped myself on the forehead and fell back into my bed.

~~ TO BE CONTINUED!! ~~

That was a big chapter! As promised... Tyler finally hooked up with someone. However now he's left to deal with the aftermath of everything that happened. Will Nate and him continue? What about Tyler & Jayden now? Where does Heath now stand in all of this? Hope the ending didn't kill you guys too much!

Thank you everyone for your continued support of the story! I'm really enjoying writing it and hearing back from you guys! Sorry for the delay in release of the chapter. Joe's circumstances aside, I did let the story go on the back burner a bit more than anticipated. I've been enjoying summer and time to sit down and write had been limited. I'm still committed to the story and will do my best to get out chapters in a more timely matter. It's just a matter of making the time!

As always, any questions, comments, concerns, criticism feel free to write in! I try my best to write everyone back. You can write me at halfin.halfout7@gmail.com