Adulting 101

by Lisa Henry

  “That’s what I heard!” Kat yells, and Jai shakes his head as the kitchen erupts with laughter.

  “I like your family,” Nick says later, when the house is quiet and they’re down in the basement, scrolling through the Netflix menu. “They’re kinda rude.”

  “Kinda?” Jai rolls his eyes.

  “I can handle your mom and your sister fine,” Nick says. “But, Jai, I cannot deal with Mr. Green. Like, I know teachers are people and stuff. Just they’re not the sort of people you expect to be snickering about your sex life, you know? This is very humiliating for me.” His smirk belies it.

  “Huh.” Jai puts an arm around him. “If we’re talking humiliating sex moments, have I got a story about a pool for you.”

  Nick elbows him. “I see your pool story, and raise you a porta-potty story.”

  Jai seriously considers that for a moment. “I don’t know. That was bad, but your dad?”

  Nick shudders. “You’re right. The pool wins.”

  “I’ve never had a meet-the-parents moment before,” Jai says. “But I’m certain that was the worst one ever.”

  “Yeah.” Nick shakes his head. “God, that was bad.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Uh, pretty sure I started the whole skinny-dipping thing.” Nick chews his bottom lip for a moment. “He’ll get over it, right? Like in a decade or something?”

  “Yeah. Probably.”

  Nick snorts and scrolls through the menu. “Narcos or The X-Files?”

  “Attack on Titan,” Jai decides.

  Nick laughs and starts the episode.

  Jai wakes up feeling a little disoriented. For a moment he’s not sure exactly where he is. A side-effect of never usually staying more than a few nights in one place. Then he registers the weight on his body. He’s resting with his back against the arm of the couch, and Nick is sprawled on top of him, his arms around Jai’s chest and his head on Jai’s shoulder.

  Jai’s back is stiff, but not enough to move Nick.

  Instead he gently cards his fingers through Nick’s hair, careful not to wake him.

  Attack on Titan is still playing. How many episodes has Jai missed? Who the hell are those guys in green cloaks again? Doesn’t matter.

  He sits there a while longer, until pressure on his bladder makes him move. He tries to slide out from under Nick without disturbing him, but it’s impossible.

  “Wha’?” Nick mumbles.

  “Bathroom,” Jai tells him quietly, then makes for the stairs.

  When he gets back, Nick is awake and sitting up, although his face is creased with sleep and his hair is sticking up in odd places.

  “What time is it?” Jai asks.

  Nick stares at the laptop. “Not even ten.”

  Jai sprawls back down on the couch.

  “Wanna make out for a while?” Nick asks.

  Jai doesn’t even have time to answer before Nick’s climbing into his lap. He laughs and tilts his head to kiss Nick’s throat. That always makes Nick squirm. Everything makes Nick squirm. Jai holds Nick’s hips, and Nick puts his hands on Jai’s shoulders.

  They kiss, and Jai imagines they fit together like puzzle pieces.

  “Huh,” Nick says, drawing back and narrowing his eyes.

  “What?”

  Nick rubs his chin against Jai’s cheek like an affectionate cat. “No morning breath.”

  “Well, it’s not morning.”

  “No, but I thought it was more a sleep thing rather than a time-of-the-day thing.” Nick kisses him again, more slowly this time, and nips at Jai’s bottom lip with his teeth. “Guess not.”

  “It’s probably the length of time you’re asleep. That was hardly even a nap.”

  “True.” Nick grinds down on Jai’s thighs, his breath hot on Jai’s lips as he leans in for another kiss. This one is short and teasing, barely a touch before Nick leans back again. His eyes are wide. He swallows, and his Adam’s apple bobs.

  “What?” Jai asks him.

  Nick sucks in a breath. “Jai, can we have sex tonight?”

  Jai slides a hand into the back of Nick’s jeans, feeling the trail of goose bumps his touch leaves on Nick’s warm skin. “Yeah. Please.”

  Nick shivers. “Awesome.”

  Jai presses his mouth to Nick’s jaw. “You want to top?”

  “Y-yeah.” Nick shudders out a breath. His throat clicks when he swallows again. He looks half-elated, half-petrified. “Um, yeah. Awesome?”

  Performance anxiety is a thing.

  Nick first became aware of it when he was nine and on the local Little League team. Which turned out to involve more than squatting in the dugout, trying to catch insects, or standing in the outfield, pretending he was Ben 10. Like there were games with scores and everything. And expectations. And, after the great chickenpox debacle of 2006, when half the team was struck down, suddenly Nick had been expected to step up and not just warm the bench. He’d actually been put third on the batting roster. Things had been that serious. For the entire week preceding the game, Nick had quietly panicked that he would mess it up. His mom and dad were coming to the game and everything.

  If Nick’s life had been something from the Disney Channel, he totally would have hit a home run that day. Knocked it right out of the park. There would have been wild cheering and lots of slow motion. And probably a humorously humiliated villain. Instead Nick had been so overcome with nerves that his performance anxiety had ratcheted straight up into nightmarish stage fright, and he’d dropped his bat and vomited all over home base.

  It’s a thing.

  But Nick’s an adult now, right? He is not going to vomit on home base this time.

  Home base being Jai’s ass.

  He is stupidly nervous. Like, they’ve had sex before, but when Nick was bottoming, it wasn’t like he had to do much but let Jai take charge, right? And now Nick kind of has to lead. He wishes he’d watched more porn. And actually paid attention to the technique, instead of just jerking off furiously and collapsing in a boneless, sticky heap on his mattress.

  Okay.

  Okay, yeah, he’s got this.

  They make out for a little while, and Nick tries to concentrate on the pressure of Jai’s lips, and the scrape of his stubble, and that cool thing he does with his tongue, and not worry about where it’s going. All he has to do is concentrate on this moment, and let the heat and the friction build between them.

  And it’s good. It’s so good. Kissing Jai is definitely on the list of Nick’s favorite things. It’s like floating in the pool in the middle of a hot night, tiny laps of cool sensation playing over his skin. His fingers scrabble at the back of Jai’s T-shirt, and Jai breaks their kiss and leans back for a moment so he can pull the shirt off.

  Nick loves the way Jai’s muscles bunch and shift under his skin.

  It’s amazing. Human beings are amazing. Like how muscles and sinew and bones and blood all make up this ridiculously complicated apparatus that somehow works, and moves, and thinks, and kisses. Electrical impulses translate into action and emotion. It’s miraculous.

  Also, Nick should have paid more attention in biology.

  Also also, it’s totally not a surprise that the closest thing he’s ever had to a religious experience involves Jai Hazenbrook taking his shirt off.

  Nick hides his grin in the curve of Jai’s shoulder, and presses his mouth to Jai’s warm skin.

  He shivers as Jai’s hands slide under his shirt, his fingers following the line of Nick’s spine. He’s so hard right now. He rocks forward, seeking contact, friction, and Jai slips one hand down the back of his jeans.

  Fuck.

  Nick leans back. “Um, we should unfold the couch?”

  Jai looks dazed, his lips kiss-bitten. “Yeah.”

  Nick slides off his lap, and stands on legs that he’s not entirely sure will hold him.

  The couch screeches and groans as they pull it out into a bed. The legs scrape against the thin carpet. Then Jai fetches the condoms and lube, and
tosses them onto the bed. Nick picks them up, his heart thumping as he toes his sneakers off.

  Jai pops the button on his fly. “You okay with this?”

  Nick lets out a shaky breath. “Pretty sure I’m gonna screw it up.”

  Jai regards him curiously for a moment. “How are you gonna screw it up, Nick?”

  “Um, like, coming the second I even get near your ass?”

  Jai shrugs and flashes him an easy grin. “So? Then we can either call it a night, or just mess around until you’re ready to go again. Whatever works.”

  Nick huffs out something close to a laugh and sets the condoms and lube back down on the end of the thin mattress. “It’s that simple, huh?”

  “Yep,” Jai says, and tugs down his zipper. “It’s that simple.”

  Then he shoves his jeans down, and Nick is momentarily deafened by an angelic choir.

  Jai’s dick.

  There are not enough superlatives in the world to describe Jai’s dick. It’s a thing of beauty, and Nick’s mouth waters at the sight of it. It’s just perfect, okay? It’s a perfect length and a perfect girth, and even the veins aren’t too weird and veiny. It also doesn’t hurt that Nick already knows how good it feels in his mouth and his ass.

  He regards Jai’s dick somewhat regretfully.

  Sorry, buddy, but you don’t get a starring role tonight.

  He’ll make things up to it later.

  Repeatedly, hopefully.

  Nick fumbles with his own jeans and underwear, and then, when he’s finally free of them, he realizes he’s still wearing his socks. Not cool. He bends over to tug them off. When he straightens up again, Jai’s sitting down. The springs wheeze and sigh.

  “How do you want me?” Jai asks him.

  “Um, however you’ll be most comfortable?” Nick asks, secretly impressed with how he doesn’t even stammer.

  Jai stretches out on the bed on his stomach. He rests his cheek on his folded arms like he’s waiting for a massage. Which he kind of is? Nick picks up the lube, his heart hammering.

  Shit shit shit.

  But also, holy fuck yes.

  Nick’s gaze travels up Jai’s naked body and hits a roadblock at the back of his left hip.

  He laughs. “Found it!”

  Jai’s tattoo. It’s a stylized tree. Okay, Nick was not expecting a tree. It’s probably the tree of life or something, right? Or that tree that Buddha meditated under until he found enlightenment. Something representing Jai’s interconnectedness with the universe and stuff.

  He climbs onto the bed and presses his fingers gently against the tattoo.

  “My dad used to take me fishing,” Jai says. “We always sat under the same tree. When I left Franklin, I wasn’t leaving that, you know? I needed to take that with me.”

  Nick leans over him and presses a kiss to his shoulder. “I like it. It’s nice.”

  He runs his hand down Jai’s back, and Jai lets out a slow breath.

  Okay, yeah. Nick can do this. He only fumbles the lube once, and doesn’t even laugh when it makes a farting sound as he squeezes some onto his fingers. Maturity, FTW.

  Jai shifts his legs apart.

  His ass is . . . Nick kind of wants to bite it. Like, a lot. And maybe growl while he does it? Instead he settles for stroking it with his dry hand, and feeling the muscles jump under his palm.

  Okay, yeah.

  Okay.

  Nick’s heart is racing. He slides his lubed fingers into the cleft of Jai’s ass, trying to remember how it felt when Jai did this to him. Except he can’t even remember his own name right now. He presses a fingertip against Jai’s hole. Jai shifts again, and Nick pushes in just a fraction. It’s tight and hot, but not as weird as Nick thought it would be. He has a finger in another guy’s ass. But also, awesome!

  He works his finger in slowly. “Is that okay?”

  “Yeah.” Jai moves like he can’t quite get comfortable, and it takes Nick a second to realize he’s rubbing himself against the mattress. Like he’s getting into it. He likes what Nick’s doing, but it’s not enough. That realization hits with a jolt, and Nick feels breathless and powerful all at the same time.

  Nick removes his finger carefully, then slides two inside. Because sex, really, is just another form of exercise, right? It’s all about the stretching. First with his fingers, and then . . .

  No. Nick is not even going to think about putting his dick inside Jai yet, or he’ll blow. In fact, Nick is going to completely forget that he even has a dick, and just concentrate on what his fingers are doing to Jai’s body. He’ll study and catalog every little reaction, like this is a science experiment or something, and not the hottest guy in the universe trying to come apart on his fingers.

  Nick’s not actually sure how he gets through the next few minutes. Or decades. Or maybe eons. It’s entirely possible he slips into a fugue state as a coping mechanism. That seems like something he would do. Whenever the going gets tough, his rational brain detaches like an escape pod and spins off into space.

  “Okay,” Jai murmurs, his breath rasping. “Now, Nick. I’m ready.”

  Jai gets his knees under him.

  Shit shit shit.

  Nick fumbles with the condoms. He tears the first one open, and then puts his thumb through it. The second one he manages to roll on without coming at his own touch, so yay for him. Still, he tightens his thumb and forefinger around the base of his dick to make sure, and gets into position.

  Where are his knees supposed to go, exactly?

  Oh, okay. No, this sort of makes sense. Yeah, he can totally line his dick up with Jai’s ass like this. And . . . and right now would be the time to start thinking of baseball stats. Or, because he hates baseball, right now would be the time to start running through the members of Rogue Squadron.

  Oh wow. Holy fuck! Jai’s ass is opening for his dick, and this is fucking incredible.

  Rogue Leader, go!

  Nick has to squeeze his eyes shut when he bottoms out. He lays a shaking hand on Jai’s hip, and curls his fingers around it. Because if he doesn’t hang on to something, he’s going to shatter into a million pieces. Because it’s so tight, so hot, and Nick has never felt pressure like this on his dick before. If it wasn’t so fucking excruciating trying to hold himself together, he’d probably ask Jai if he could live in his ass.

  “Okay?” Jai asks.

  “Y-yeah. Just trying to, um . . .” To not come like a geyser.

  “Feels good, Nick.” Jai groans. “So good.”

  That is probably a lie, but Nick will take the ego boost. He pulls back, then thrusts slowly forward again. Jai has a prostate he should he aiming for, right? Nick will totally get on that as soon as he gets this motion thing sorted out. Because two—three now—awkward thrusts do not a rhythm make.

  What if Jai’s prostate is like the thermal exhaust point on the first Death Star? How is Nick supposed to find it? He’s not Luke Skywalker. He’s never bull’s-eyed womp rats in his T-16 back home.

  And okay, he should probably stop thinking about Star Wars now.

  Three strokes become four, become five, but six is apparently out of the question, because suddenly Nick’s coming, fingers tightening on Jai’s hips, body shuddering, and all the coiled tension in his balls letting go just like that.

  “Fuck.” Nick half collapses over Jai, gasping. Tremors run through him like the aftershocks of some massive quake.

  Okay, so that was embarrassingly fast, but not as embarrassingly fast as it could have been. It’s not much of a distinction, but Nick’s going to hold on to it.

  He pulls out of Jai and stumbles over toward the trash can in the corner to dispose of the condom. And to maybe take a moment to think about how to apologize? When he turns around again, Jai’s lying on his back, legs wide, tugging on his dick like it isn’t even a little bit weird to do that in front of someone. Which of course it isn’t, considering Nick just had his dick in Jai’s ass, right?

  Jai’s gaze is fixed on Nick like he�
��s something worth looking at, even though Nick is sweaty and bright red.

  Jai strokes himself off with his left hand. He cups his balls with his right hand, squeezes, then moves his hand lower and shoves two fingers inside his ass. His abs tighten, his body jackknifes, and then he’s coming all over his stomach and chest.

  It’s probably the hottest thing Nick has ever seen.

  “Holy shit,” Nick whispers, and Jai gives him a lazy smile.

  Nick pads to the laundry tub, finds a washcloth, wets it, and heads back over to Jai.

  “That was, um . . .”

  “It was good, Nick.” Jai takes the cloth and wipes the spunk off his stomach, then the lube off his ass and inner thighs.

  Nick lies down beside him. “I’ll probably be better at it next time.”

  “We both came,” Jai says. “I’m not complaining.”

  “Fuck, me neither. Just, um, you know how you said to watch porn with twinks plowing bigger guys?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, maybe next time I want to plow the fuck out of you. Like hard-core piston action, you know?”

  Jai grins. “That sounds like something I’d be into, sure.”

  Nick wonders if Jai knows how cool he is. About everything, and not just Nick being not very good at sex. Yet. Because Nick is going to practice, and, one day soon, he’s going to add Jai’s mind to the list of things he can blow, and it’s going to be incredible.

  Nick tries to think about that, without thinking about the countdown timer running in the back of his head, telling him summer’s almost over. Telling him this is almost over. Because he knew the deal from the start. Other things may have changed, but that hasn’t.

  At the end of the summer, he’ll have to say good-bye.

  It’s probably going to hurt.

  Nick: I think I have feelings.

  Devon: Called it, bro.

  Nick: WHAT?

  Devon: Jai’s a cool guy and you’re a marshmallow. This was sort of inevitable?

  Nick: Maybe I wasn’t even talking about Jai, asshole.

  Devon: Who were u talking about, then?

  Nick: Fuck you.

  Devon: Called it.

  Devon: U still there?