Instead, all I saw with Mia.
It felt like the obsessive trance I felt just before the game against Kentucky. She had given me victory, even though I was worried I was being distracted by the thought of her.
The reality was she wasn’t the distraction, everything else was.
“Bryant, oh God, you’re so good,” she moaned, propping herself up with her palms and elbows against the mattress so she could arch her butt up for me to get in really, really deep.
I felt like this was Olympian-level athleticism that we were both giving each other, this sexual amazingness that just blew my mind.
I had to surrender to the pleasure.
That boiling sensation was already rising way too high in me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back any longer.
“Just remember,” Mia said in halting moans, “I’m not on birth control. Pull out if you can.”
That made me feel even wilder, my cock starting to pulse and go red-hot inside her. Yes, I had to respect that, I had to keep myself from releasing inside her. I wanted this climax, but we had to do it right.
We had to do it her way. That was the only way we could keep doing this every night, the way I wanted.
So when I knew I couldn’t hold back a second longer, I bit back a loud moan and managed to pull back out of her, slumping on her body as I began to be overwhelmed by my own pleasure. She was shaking and trembling too, clearly coming a second time just as I withdrew.
“Holy fuck,” I grunted, holding her tight. My hands wrapped under her, sandwiching her between me and the mattress. She felt so small under me.
“Oh, I love that,” she moaned with full lust. “That’s… amazing. You’re dangerous, Bryant. I’m going to get addicted.”
“I already am,” I joked.
Her back and my abs were sticky from me coming, and I slowly began to peel myself off of her.
“Okay, shower,” I said, exhaling with full pleasure. “That was amazing.”
“I already said that,” Mia smiled. “Ugh, I want to kiss you, but I don’t want to get the sheets all messy by flipping over. Can you take me to the shower? Please?”
Oh, I think when she said please, she made my cock throb all over again, ready for round two.
But she was right, we needed to get into the shower.
The release from having finally satisfied my desires with Mia made my body feel so light, like all my burdens had just gone away. She had an attached bathroom, which was great, because otherwise I would have had to carry her naked across the corridor to the nearest bathroom — but then again, in this house, that wasn’t exactly the most uncommon thing.
The other guys might still enjoy their playboy lives, hooking up with whoever was the hottie of the week. But sex with Mia was something else.
I couldn’t get enough.
In fact, when I placed her gently feet down on the floor of the shower, I immediately began to line up behind her and try my luck.
“Bryant!” she laughed. “You have the world’s biggest appetite.”
“I’m a hungry boy,” I grinned. “And you know that.”
Mia and I showered together, Mia dodging slightly out of the flow of the water so she wouldn’t have to worry about getting her hair wet. I liked the way her light, blonde hair echoed all over her body, leaving little fine blonde hairs that you couldn’t really see unless you paid attention. Even her pubes were practically invisible, until you brushed a hand there and felt its softness.
And as I did just that, Mia smiled, teasing me a little by grinding her butt against me, but then turning around with liquid soap in her palms.
“Can you do my back?”
“Of course,” I replied, always happy to help her with anything she needed.
There was only one towel, so after we showered, Mia had to jump out, towel off, and find a spare towel. It was one of hers, so it was way too small for me, barely covering my waist and crotch.
“I’m seriously objectifying you right now,” she laughed. “You look ridiculous… and ridiculously hot.”
I flexed, striking a pose. “How about now?”
“Bryant, you’re so silly.”
“Mmmm,” I murmured, stepping up to her as I toweled the water off of my chest and back. “Give me a fucking kiss right now.”
She was so much shorter than me that she had to get on her tiptoes and I had to crouch a little with the towel still wrapped around my right hand. “Cute,” I said.
“You’re the cute one,” Mia shook her head. “I’m just… me.”
“Well, there’s only one of you, and I don’t want you thinking you’re comparable to any person ever. There’s nobody like you. You’re truly something else.”
Mia raised an eyebrow. “Okay…”
“I mean it.”
“If you say so,” she said, smiling but rolling her eyes. It was strange to me that despite displaying to her just how much I wanted her, she still doubted herself. Surely she knew that I had to find her as hot as I often said? Or did she think it was just flattery?
“Hey, there’s some noise coming from your room,” I said, as I walked over to the bathroom door, opening it.
It sounded like a phone. Wasn’t mine, my ringtone wasn’t like that. “My phone?” Mia asked, ducking past me even as I blocked the doorway, and then heading over to the bed.
She had to find her phone from a pocket in her pajama pants. “Hello?”
I watched her face immediately change into worry as she listened to a conversation, occasionally responding to prompt the other person to speak.
It didn’t sound like a good conversation. Someone was crying or something, and she was trying her best to comfort the person on the other end, only to get interrupted with more crying.
Toweling myself off until I was completely dry, I just watched her, trying to anticipate how I could help her with this trouble.
Well, if she needed to be somewhere, I could drive her. My car was parked here, I had a full tank of gas. We could go as soon as the call ended.
Unless it was Samantha, in which case… I should probably keep my distance. But that didn’t mean Mia didn’t deserve help.
She finally ended the phone call, tears welling up in her eyes.
“It’s Eugene,” she said.
I tried to remember who that was.
“My brother, Eugene. He’s… some kids bullied him and beat him up at school today.”
“What?” I shouted.
“Because he’s gay. This is sick. I can’t believe this is still happening. He’s always been a little more effeminate and in touch with his feelings, but beating him up is disgusting, I can’t believe someone would do that to him. And it wasn’t just one kid. There were multiple attackers.”
My mouth was just left wide open. I felt sick hearing that too.
And I felt especially disgusted because I used to be a bully myself. I would never have picked on someone because of their orientation, but it made me instantly think back about all the crueler things I had done.
Name-calling and excluding people, threatening to expose someone’s secrets, extorting other kids’ lunch money… I wasn’t very proud of myself at that moment. I had to find a way to help.
“I’m so sorry, Mia,” I said, as I walked up to her.
Suddenly I felt really self-conscious about my nakedness. Like a minute ago, it would have been hot in that little towel, teasing her along. Now I felt bared and exposed.
And I felt like this was somehow punishment for my own years of being a bully.
Mia was right when she called me out on that. I had been a jerk to a lot of kids, all because they were different — and I wanted to tell myself that I would never have done something violent and cruel to a kid because he was gay, but could I really guarantee that? I did lots of dumb things as a kid.
Fuck, I felt so bad.
“Mia, what are you going to do?” I asked.
She sat up, pulling her towel tight around her body so it wrap
ped her up. “I need to fly home. Immediately. I have the money, I can buy the tickets. Uh… this is awkward. You probably didn’t sign up for more drama.”
“This isn’t drama. This is serious,” I said, shaking my head. “Okay, flying back home is a good idea. I think we can catch a late night flight.”
“We?” Mia asked, looking up to me.
“Yeah. We. I’m going with you. Of course I’m going with you.”
“It’s Thursday night, Bryant. You’ve got a game this weekend, don’t you have more important things to do than come with me to comfort my brother? You don’t even really know my family,” Mia said.
She wasn’t protesting. I could tell she was just trying to understand why I would want to do this.
But I knew that I had to. I had a responsibility to be there for her.
So I said so.
“Responsibility…” Mia considered aloud. “Fine. Okay. You don’t have to come. You should really think this through first. You’re going to get in a lot of trouble.”
I knew that I would, but I didn’t think it was anything I couldn’t get out of.
“No, Mia. I’m going with you. Pack whatever you need, I’ll drive us to the airport as soon as you’re ready.”
“How about the tickets?”
“We’ll just buy them at the counter. People still do that, you know. Don’t worry about it, just get your money and your clothes.”
She relaxed a little more — I think it was because I made it clear she was paying for her own flight.
Flying back to Indianapolis right now meant I needed to tell the guys what was going on.
I excused myself for a second, walking out with the towel barely wrapped around me, heading straight upstairs so I could get to Marvin’s room. I banged a fist on his door.
“What the hell, Bryant?” Marvin said, waking up and opening the door. “Uh… dude. Why are you naked?”
“Hey, man. I need you to cover for me. I’m going to have to fly out tonight. I don’t know when I’m coming back.”
His eyes widened. We were loud enough that Russel could hear us, so he immediately swung out of his room. “Are you fucking serious?” Russel immediately said.
“You’re one of the quarterbacks on the team,” I told him. “You’ve been showing really good progress. If I can’t make it for the game in Missouri… I know you’ll do a good job.”
“Man, Coach Frost is going to kill you for this,” Marvin immediately said. “You’ve got to be really careful. Are you sure? Why are you even doing this?”
“I’m doing it because this is the right thing to do. And if Coach Frost wants to kill me… well, when I come back I’ll make sure he gets to hear the full story. I just need you guys to know about this first.”
“Can we ask why you’re leaving?” Tyrone said, frowning. He and Marvin traded looks.
“Mia’s brother’s in trouble. Some assholes beat them up. It’s a long story. I just have to fly back home and… I don’t know, fix everything,” I told them.
I placed a hand on both Marvin and Tyrone’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t ask for your help unless I truly needed it. You two are my brothers. And you need to get Russel into this too. He’s gotta know as well.”
The guys didn’t look any more convinced, but they finally let me go.
I went to my room, changed quickly into some fresh clothes, and then rushed downstairs to rejoin Mia.
“You don’t have to come,” she said one more time, zipping a backpack.
“I want to. And I know you want me to, too,” I told her.
She didn’t say anything, but I could sense her secret desire for me to come with her.
We got in the car, driving straight to the airport.
At least at this hour of the night it wasn’t hard getting parking. We didn’t even need to park in one of the long-term parking bays. I took her backpack and we walked straight to the counter.
There was a flight in an hour and a half that was still open. It was the only direct flight to Indianapolis. Otherwise we would need to fly to Chicago.
Mia counted her money, paying. “This is for one person,” she said, handing it over to the woman manning the airline counter desk.
I handed her my credit card. “And this one’s for me.”
“One moment,” she smiled.
I looked at Mia. “I’ve got this under control. Why don’t you freshen up first before we go through the gate? Maybe grab something to eat.”
She nodded sadly. She didn’t even speak much during our drive, just looking out the window sadly. I could tell she was really broken up by this news.
It couldn’t have been easy for her. She had to be really close to her brother if she would risk paying so much money to fly out immediately.
Her family didn’t know I was coming too. I hoped I wouldn’t get a frosty reception from them.
As soon as Mia was gone, I turned back to the person fixing up our tickets. “Hey… actually, can you do me a favor? I’d like to buy us upgrades to business class.”
Mia deserved only the best.
17
Mia
I was lost in my sadness, horrified that something bad like this had happened.
Deep down, I blamed myself. Not that I had to protect Eugene, but because this was more proof that bad things happened when I started to settle down somewhere.
I got comfortable at home, dreaming of a perfect future life — going to college at an elite school, becoming a world-famous journalist… and look what happened. Our house burned down. When the insurance investigators checked through everything, they found problems with the electric heater which was my responsibility, because it was next to my room.
My family never blamed me for the traumatic loss of our house where we had spent all our time together. They didn’t see it the way I did.
But I knew I brought bad luck with me. Even if I thought things were getting better now, I knew that I was just meant for a life of hardship.
Some people just got everything given to them. I didn’t want to think Bryant, being the billionaire’s son that he was, was one of them… but it was so frustrating sometimes seeing how he never took a step back to consider his privilege. To him, everything was easy.
To me, nothing was.
I couldn’t even keep my best friend, and now that I lost her, I was terrified about the prospect of my brother being hurt.
I missed Eugene, even if my life at school had me thinking away, forgetting about my family… and look where that got me now.
Before we boarded, I was able to get a call through to Regina, telling her I was coming back. I asked if she could pick us up from the airport. She didn’t hesitate, saying she would drive over as soon as her shift finished at her new job.
Now she was waitressing at a this expensive steakhouse, apparently. I didn’t even know that about her — I had been so preoccupied with myself that I hadn’t bothered to update myself on the lives of all the others I had left behind.
This was why I was so scared about Gene. I didn’t want my brother to think he was abandoned. And I didn’t want him to be alone at this time.
When he called me, he told me he hadn’t told our parents yet. It was a good idea, because I didn’t think Mom and Dad would handle it the right way. He needed comfort and support, not a lot of anger. Our parents would talk a big deal about taking this to the school authorities, but I knew kids at school would just treat him as a traitor, a snitch, someone who couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t want him to suffer even more social consequences for being him.
And Eugene was such a sweet boy, too. I remembered that he was the one who made me feel good just before I left for Florida. When my doubts were starting to take hold, he was the one who helped me.
Sure, he was a sassy, moody teen, but that was what happened when you had a fourteen year old boy trying to figure his life out.
His life didn’t deserve being beaten up for being gay.
I was so angry.
&n
bsp; My vision was so clouded by my anger and sadness that I didn’t even notice that Bryant had somehow scored us an upgrade to business class, allowing us to board first.
“Tell me this was free,” I said, rolling my eyes, knowing the answer.
“They understood the situation, so they gave us a happy break,” he said, modestly. I loved that Bryant was so protective, and this was genuinely a nice thing to do.
It looked like it was going to be a busy flight, since the route to Indianapolis was only once a week. Most people flew in through Chicago or Pittsburgh, but tonight of all nights I didn’t want a long layover, to be exhausted from just being around all these people at airports.
Right now what mattered was that we got home as soon as possible.
“I’ll pay you back for the upgrade,” I promised Bryant.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said, using my own words back against me. “You need this. And so do I. I’m a huge, hulking quarterback, Mia. I’m not going to be comfortable sitting in economy. Especially in one of these planes, where we’d probably have to squeeze in with four other people in the middle aisle.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. I didn’t do anything,” he said.
Well, he did. I knew he did. I felt bad about being so quiet and sad through the long flight, but I wasn’t in a chatty mood.
Talking would just depress me. I didn’t want any of that.
Eventually, I even managed to fall asleep.
Bryant was reading the in-flight magazine when I woke up. “Did I sleep for long?” I asked.
“No, just an hour or so. You looked pretty peaceful, I hope you didn’t have any bad dreams.”
I didn’t. Dreamless sleep was exactly what I wanted right now, and I was grateful for it.
Over in business class, we had plenty of legroom to stretch out, and the seats even rotated for maximum space.
Bryant looked up at me. “Can I get you some champagne, at least?”
“We’ve got nothing to celebrate,” I said drily.
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