"Fold," I moaned, seeing I had no way of winning with a single pair of fours.
"Joe?" Nick prompted.
"Call," Joey said emotionlessly as he tossed the chips on the stack.
"Readem and weep," Nick said, laying the cards down so we could read them.
"Holy shit!" Joey said, seeing the four Jacks. "I can't believe you have all four Jacks!"
"Ha!" Nick bellowed out before reaching for the pile of chips.
"Ha yourself," Joey said, setting the four kings down.
"Shit! How do you do that!"
"You don't expect an answer do you? Didn't think so," Joey said, raking his chips in.
"Oh Bartender.." Joey called a few moments later.
"Yeah, what?!" Lenny said coming over.
"Be a good lad and get me a coke out of the fridge?" Joey said, smirking and handing Lenny the key to our room.
"Another one?" Lenny said as he turned to leave.
"Remind me to never bet my servitude for a week. It's not worth the gamble," I said to Joey.
"Heh. So Nick... You up for another game to win back your losses?"
"No way, man.. I'm all played out. Good thing we weren't playing for money," Nick said, reaching up with his arms and stretching.
"You know," I said, watching Joey stack up his chips, "one of us should go see if Greg is still going to the party or not. From what I understand, we're supposed to show up in our group."
"Well don't look at me. I'm the one he's avoiding" Joey said.
"I'm not so sure of that. Ever since I called his bluff in the showers the other day, he's been kind of cautious about what he does while I'm around."
"Well, can't blame him there," Joey said, starting to do his fancy card shuffling. "You did call his bluff. That always makes me cautious about someone."
Nick sighed, then said, "All right. If you want me to do it, just say so."
"Say so," Joey and I both said without needing to think about it.
"Where's he going?" Lenny asked as he handed Joey his soda and key.
"He bet he could get some chick named Darlene to blow us all. He's going to find her with the twenty bucks she charges," Joey said seriously.
"WHAT!" Lenny said spinning towards the door. But then he got wise and turned around saying, "Yeah, and I bet you get to fuck her afterwards too."
"Nah.. That costs an extra ten. But he said she might be having a special this week since her boyfriend doesn't satis.."
Lenny wrapped one of Nick's dirty workout shirts around Joey's face and kept it there while Joey struggled laughing. Finally Lenny let go and said, "There. That'll teach you for rippin' on my girl."
"Whose girl?" Kirk said, walking in the open door with a book bag.
My face lit up at the sound of his voice, hoping he had gotten my message yesterday after I suddenly thought of something to get rid of the dirty sex after-taste.
"Never mind. Did you bring it?" I asked.
"What do you think is in here? School books?" he said, unzipping the side and flashing the bottle of 200 proof grain alcohol.
"Cool. How much to I owe you?" I asked, pulling out my wallet.
"It's on me. Shit, if it wasn't for you getting your old friends to lend me the flicks, I'd be waist deep in shit right now trying to keep new stuff on my screen. Anything you want, just let me know. Anything."
"Thanks. Right now this is all I need," I said, patting the bag.
Nick came back at that moment, and said, "He's going, but he wants to talk to Tim alone for a minute."
"Who is it?" Greg's muffled voice said when I knocked.
"It's me. Tim. Nick said.."
The door opened up just wide enough for me to squeeze through, Greg nowhere to be seen.
I stepped through the gap, and almost got my finger crushed when Greg slammed the door behind me.
"What's going on?" I said, noticing how dim the room was with the curtains drawn. "Where's Austin?"
"He went home for the weekend," Greg answered still standing against the door.
"Greg, you're starting to worry me. Why are you avoiding us? I though you understood we wouldn't touch.."
"I know..." he said with a hint of unsteadiness. "Look. Tim.. I have a secret. A secret I've never told anyone. But I have to tell someone and you kind of know a little bit of it already.. Let's sit down, okay?"
He sat down on what I figured to be his bunk, so I sat down on the other one, only to find him getting up and sitting down next to me.
"I take it this has to do with what Joey and I did in the shower that one day?"
"Yeah, but its more than that. A lot more. You see, when I was growing up, all I heard what Austin this Austin that from my mom. My aunt, Austin's mom, worked, so my mom took care of Austin during the day. I was always second to him, even in my own house. My own room, even. Just because he was supposed to be gifted.
"But when I was thirteen, we started jerking off together, and I guess I had the advantage on him there. He's six months younger than I am, but my dad.. I guess his dad was a late bloomer, or mine an early one.. Anyway, I taught him everything I had figured out for myself, and we tried a few things together.
"I think I must have fallen in love with him or something. But then he, being the gifted child he is, suddenly decided that jerking off and everything else I had done with him was beneath him. It blew me away. He even started making fun of me. I guess I decided never to have anything to do with anyone like that again."
I waited for him to continue, and eventually had to say, "So what does this have to do with me and Joey?"
"Nothing.. Except.. I don't know how to say this.." He said hanging his head.
"Just say it any way you can," I said, trying to get my head low enough to make eye contact.
"I've hid all my life from any kind of.. dating or... anything that would lead me back to feeling that kind of rejection. But... I.. I never stopped hoping that Austin would, you know... reconsider? I'm not gay, and I don't think I'm even bi. But with Austin... What I'm trying to say is, when I saw you and Joey doing it, all I could think about.. All I can still think about is how much I wanted to do something like that with Austin. I'm so confused..."
I blinked three times before I processed all that.
"Greg," I said softly. "Does Austin know any of this?"
"No," he said. "And he not going to find out, either. I hate him. He's such an asshole around me.. Yet, I can't stop thinking about how much I want to share something with him. Something that's important. I want his.. his.."
"His what?" I prompted when he didn't continue right away.
"Respect? Trust? I don't know. Not love. Not sex either, really. Just.. Something we can share between us... What's the word for it... Shit."
"I think the word is intimacy. You want him to share something back with you and no one else," I said after analyzing the feelings I was getting from him. "Something private and personal. Something to make you both equals about something."
"Yeah. That's it. That's it exactly. But it will never happen because Austin doesn't NEED to be intimate with me. He has lots of girlfriends that he's always with, and I can't offer him anything that they couldn't. Except that thing you and Joey did. I guess that's why seeing you two like that upset me. I knew I'd never have that."
"Shit, Greg. You make it sound like you can only be intimate with another guy. But you know there's a whole ocean of girls out there. Forget Austin, man. He's the wrong kind of fish for you anyway. Like, when we get into the Eta's you know you're gonna have women lining up to be intimate with ya. Hell, you already have girls eyeing ya. Didn't you notice that Wendy chick watching you in the cafeteria?"
"Well, yeah... But I thought I must have had some shit in my hair or something."
"Nah. I know that look. She was making herself wet just watching ya. And when you were bending over to tie your shoe, I think she almost died watching your butt almost pop out of your jeans. By the way, dude," I added, slipping a finger under his tight fitting sleeve. "You need to get some bigger clothes."
"I'm not the only one," he said with a grin. "Remember, it was you who split your shorts this morning."
"How did you know about that?"
"Shit. If you can hear me whacking off during the day, don't you think I heard that 'kkkkkkkkkkkkch' in the dead of the night?"
"Heh.. I guess you got me there. They were my favorite pair too. Suzi gave them to me before.. Uhm, anyway.. Lets go see what the other guys are going to do before we have to get ready for the party."
"Well, there is just one other thing.." he said, staying seated after I got up.
"Oh. Sorry," I said, sitting back down and giving him my complete attention.
"I'm not sure if this is a good idea with Joe having problems, or even if the floor monitor would let us, but.. You know how you got that empty space where Joe's bunk used to sit?"
"What. You want to move in with us?" I asked surprised.
"Yeah. Or just sleep in there. Austin doesn't even try to be quiet when I'm trying to sleep. And then there's the other reason I'd rather not be around him that you already know."
"I don't know, Greg. I mean, I don't know if we can always avoid doing stuff in the room. I still can't believe no one else heard us those two times."
"Were do you guys go after workouts, anyway?" he asked.
I felt there was more than innocent curiosity behind his question, so I asked him, "Why? You thinking about joining us?" I teased.
"No, I uhm... Well, not join you. But.."
"You're serious, aren't you? Why do you want to watch us? I mean, I don't even like thinking about what we've done the past couple of nights. Wait a sec. Did you watch us in the shower?"
"Yeah."
"The whole time?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I guess.. I guess I liked watching ya. But I don't want to do any of that stuff myself."
I didn't know what to say at that point. He was telling the truth, and not holding anything back. I was really hurting to use my telepathy to scan him right then, and since Joey had used his magic touch on me on two different occasions without anyone detecting it, I was pretty certain no one would pick up a simple scan like I wanted to do. The problem was, if I found something that I acted on, I would have to somehow explain how I learned about it. Explain to whom you ask? Well, if not to Greg or Nick, I would have to explain it via my cloak personality's memory.
"I take it you don't like the idea," Greg said, hiding his hurt feelings.
"No, it's not that," I said, laying an arm across his shoulders and rubbing the hard muscle on the other side. "Its just... I never thought anyone would find that kind of thing entertaining."
"It just goes to show you were right."
I gave him a questioning glance, so he grinned and said, "I am a pervert."
"Heh.. I'll agree to that," I said taking my arm off his shoulders to give him a friendly punch. "Look. I'll talk to Joe about you sleeping in our room, and maybe you can watch us once in a while. But I'm not making any promises, and you may find yourself doing more than just watching if you're not careful."
"I understand. Thanks."
"Now, unless there's anything else that you want to shock me with.."
"Nope. I'm done. We can go now hang with the others now," he said getting up.
"Uhm, Greg. If we do let you sleep in our room, make sure you always wear some really loose shorts or something."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because I don't want to ever see your sexy ass strain cloth like that in front of me again," I said, giving his ass a hard slap and adjusting my own tight shorts to give my hardon a little more room.