Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2023 15:04:02 -0400 From: Braddy Boyce Subject: Hide and Suck 5 DISCLAIMER: The names and details of my characters are fictious. Resemblances to real people, living or dead, are coincidental. REMINDER: Please donate to Nifty! =====BB===== Why did I still feel weird about what I'd just seen in the cabin? As I walked out of the woods with Sammy, no longer in the mood to play Hide and Seek, I couldn't stop thinking about Donnie playing Hide and Suck with Ralphie. It wasn't like he was my boyfriend, and we definitely didn't act like it. So, why the weird mood? Why was my stomach still feeling tight? "Aren't we going to find them, Billy?" Sammy asked as we stood in the vast field that connected to my backyard. He was so innocent without a clue as to what really went on during a game of Hide and Seek. "I'm not in the mood to play anymore." "Oh." Sammy looked adorably concerned. "Did something happen?" Even his boyishly prepubescent voice was so soft and full of kindness, like the sweet boy he'd always been, albeit with whiny moments. I knew better than to tell him the truth because it would feel like a betrayal. Besides, he was still kind of young. Granted, he wasn't much younger than me, only a little, but he might not understand certain stuff that was hard to explain. Was he even into doing stuff with boys like Donnie, Ralphie, and I were? That was the mystery question. I shrugged. "Maybe we can wait for them to come back and do something else?" Sammy beamed, clearly liking that idea. "Okay!" Donnie and Ralphie finally returned and noticed me and Sammy standing here, looking confused. However, for the first time, I gave Ralphie a cold look while my stomach continued to tighten with the discomfort of reality, and I was suddenly not in the mood to play games with him anymore. In fact, it was all his fault for making me feel like this. Had he never come into the picture, none of this would've ever happened, and Hide and Suck would've remained special between me and Donnie only. "You guys failed to find us." Ralphie's smirk had never bothered me until now. I saw it in a different light, despite being the same expression as before. Something about him made me want to push him hard and yell mean stuff at him, as if whatever I felt about the Hide and Suck situation gradually progressed into something stronger. It was a foreign feeling that I wasn't used to, and I didn't like it one bit. "Who cares?" I muttered in a snappy tone. Sammy formed a big smile. "Me and Billy actually found a really cool cabin in the woods that looks abandoned!" Sammy, no! Ugh, great... Ralphie and even Donnie raised their eyebrows as if surprised, probably suspecting the truth about being caught without their knowledge. "Billy sneaked around and peeked through the window," Sammy bluntly continued. "but I guess he didn't find you guys in there, so we left, and he decided he didn't want to play anymore." Ralphie's smirk had gone from strong to weak in mere seconds. He and Donnie exchanged weird looks that told me they realized they had been caught. Ralphie sighed. "Hey, Billy, can we talk in private right now? I have some important stuff to tell you." Donnie remained mute, while a speechless Sammy simply looked confused as he shifted his gaze back and forth between the three of us. I gave Ralphie a shrug. "Whatever." As sour as my mood was, as little as I wanted to talk to him, I suddenly felt like I had a lot of important stuff to tell him. In fact, I was ready to let him have it. =====BB===== braddyboyce.wordpress.com nifty.org/nifty/authors.html#braddyboyce (c) 2023, Braddy Boyce. All rights reserved.