Is it possible to be hungover without having been drunk first?
John wondered moments after waking up. Aside from the irritation of the July sun flooding his eyes through the window, he was also suffering from a sort of black out; he could remember having gone for a walk the previous night after Riley had left, but he could not remember where exactly he had gone or how long he had been out of the house. By the time he collapsed into his bed, he was sure it was well past midnight, but that was based solely on the aching of his feet rather than any clock. Sleep had been welcome but dreamless, and part of him wished to return to that state, but he had the vague awareness that this was the second or possibly third time he'd woken up that morning, and so he "rose" from bed, a motion more accurately described as rolling, and proceeded to make coffee.
He wondered as he scooped the grounds into the machine if caffeine was truly addictive in a medical sense. It certainly had his grip on him, although he could attribute this mostly to purely higher psychological phenomena. In any case, the smell of it percolating did not go well with the Thai food which had grown cold, uneaten, on the kitchen table. He checked it for any signs of having gone bad, but, finding none and attributing, perhaps unjustifiably, to himself the ability to eat whatever he wanted without getting sick, he put it in the refrigerator. Spicy noodles were not an ideal breakfast, even if he were hungry for anything besides caffeine, which, strangely, he found he was not. While the coffee maker worked its dark magic, he proceeded to take his morning piss and shower.
He had somehow still not worked up anything like hunger by the time he'd finished his shower, which the clock told him was already past ten, so he sat with just his coffee, checking his phone.
Did people in the past worry they were becoming slaves to the morning newspaper or something?
he wondered as he sipped the coffee. No messages from Riley; a disappointment but not a surprise. Liam had sent him some texts, though.
Hey daddy
big plans for the day off?
He replied
nothing, really
not feeling patriotic, I guess
Liam replied quickly
aww poor daddy
going to a bbq
work people, boring but networking
For some reason John chuckled at that. He couldn't blame the kid for wanting to get out of temping.
Sounds fun
he texted. He hoped that sarcasm would translate sans emoji.
sounds boring as hell
want to come?
Tempting,
John thought.
I have a whole fridge full of Thai food to eat and no networking to do, but thanks
he texted back.
Maybe I should have said yes,
he thought. He could tell a depression was coming on, with the altered sleep schedule, the lack of appetite, the general malaise. He just wasn't sure why. If he had to guess, he would have pinned it on dredging up old memories of Madison and E. He hadn't revisited those memories in a long time, so it didn't seem the likely cause; time had, he had surmised until that instant, truly healed all wounds.
Besides,
he reasoned,
the story, as poorly and incompletely told as it had been, seemed to have some kind of effect on Riley, who had shifted into a kind of wild slut mode before he'd even finished, leading to some of the best and filthiest sex he'd ever had.
He didn't know what she had found so erotic about it, resolving to ask her about it the next time they met.
Of course, he did not know when that would be; she had practically bolted out the door after what had seemed to him to be a sudden and inexplicable mood change. He wondered if her perplexing personality changes was a trans girl thing, an effect of hormones, but dismissed that as probably bigoted in some way. It was more likely just a Riley thing or, maybe a John thing, just something he perceived that wasn't really there at all. He had, after all, seemingly become overly depressed at her having to leave suddenly because of a forgotten prior engagement, a totally normal thing for a person to do and nothing that in and of itself should have bothered him in the slightest. Still, it did.
Sunlight would probably help, but he didn't feel up to it and the leftovers made for a handy excuse.
come over when you're done networking?
he added. Liam would certainly be a cure for whatever ailed him.
Liam replied
done by 1:30 latest
followed by the address for some public park where apparently the event was being held, then
going to need some dick for sure
Liam had a way of perking John right up. He texted back a thumbs up, finished his coffee, and went to put on some clothes, selecting his outfit based on how easy it would be to remove quickly.
Now I just have to kill a couple hours.
He briefly considered jerking off, but knowing how things would go with Liam, he decided it was better to conserve as much cum as possible, even if that came at the cost of cumming a little earlier the first time.
He went back downstairs and turned on the tv, flipping through his choices on streaming for a bit, but became bored with it quickly.
What did people do before constant digital stimulation? Read books, maybe,
he answered his own mental question. He looked over towards the book shelf that had grown, by this point, to be largely decorative. There was that elementary Thai language book he'd bought, gotten a couple chapters into, and then abandoned. He got up off the couch and flipped through it. The notes he'd scrawled in the margins had grown more and more infrequent as the book went on, until they disappeared entirely. A quick glance through it showed him that the "thank you" he'd given over the phone the previous night had been about the only thing he'd retained.
I'll have to start all over again,
he conceded,
if I ever get around to it again.
He finally opted for a different type of self-improvement, doing a quick workout in the junk room/exercise room. He'd set an alarm to give him plenty of time to take another shower and make the trip over to get Liam, so the workout was short on top of being ineffective because he kept thinking about licking and fucking Liam's tight little asshole instead of focusing. He showered, changed again, and drove over to the park.
It was a large park, and, with the holiday, crowded, but John was able to follow the smoke from a grill to find where a group that he supposed to be Liam's was enjoying themselves. There were kids running around, adults lounging in lawn chairs, and people eating hamburgers and hot dogs off of paper plates. He was surprised when he tried and failed to recall the last time he'd been to such an event, and more surprised to find that the smell of meat cooking on the grill actually seemed appetizing.
Feeling better already,
he supposed, scanning the crowd for Liam. He spotted the kid talking with a group of mixed genders that he took to be coworkers, and, with no desire to interrupt, having arrived earlier than planned, found an otherwise unoccupied picnic table and had a seat.
He got his phone out to send Liam an
I'm here
text but before he could even verify it was sent, someone started talking to him and he turned his attention to the source of the voice. It was a big guy, easily half a foot taller than John, had he been standing up, which he wasn't, which only emphasized the size difference. "You want a burger?" the man, sporting a friendly smile and an apron over his large pot belly said.
"Huh?" was John's first reaction, followed by "Oh, uh, no thanks, I'm not part of this, just picking someone up."
"Ah," said the guy. "Well, plenty to go around. Let me know if you change your mind."
"Actually, you know what, I will have a burger, if that's alright," John surprised himself by saying.
"Coming right up," the guy said jovially. He fetched a burger from a nearby grill and plated it on a paper plate. "Fixins over there," the guy indicated a table with a group of what looked to be harried moms wrangling kids around it, then accepted John's thanks and disappeared again to tend to another grill.
John sat eating a burger, one much better than any he'd had in a good long while, and watched Liam while trying not to look like a creep. Far from seeming bored, Liam looked relaxed, enjoying the weather and the company. John almost felt bad for dragging him away from this, knowing that all he could offer was sex and leftover thai food.
But maybe that's what he prefers,
concluded John. He wasn't sure that he himself did, at the moment, but he was happy when Liam evidently seized a lull in the conversation to look at his phone, and, judging from the way he immediately started looking around, read John's text. A wave was enough to catch the kid's attention.
"Enjoying the barbecue?" Liam asked as he reached the table where John was sitting alone with a now empty paper plate.
"I would be remiss if I didn't point out that burgers and hot dogs do not technically count as 'barbecue'. I think 'cookout' is more applicable. But, yeah, it's nice."
"Should have come earlier," Liam said. He sat down across from Jon and wiped some sweat off his brow. "You could have played kickball with us."
"If I had known 'networking' included kickball, I might have," John said.
"Too bad," said Liam. "You missed it, so you're just going to have to settle for taking me home and fucking the shit out of me."
"Quite the consolation prize," John replied. "I hate to drag you away, though. Looked like you were having fun."
Liam rolled his eyes. "I'm very good at pretending to be having a good time."
"A useful skill," John replied, "although it makes me question what you think of our dates."
"One good thing about guys," Liam said, "is that we can't fake an orgasm."
"I suppose that's true," John conceded while considering if it actually was.
"Don't worry, daddy, I like you," Liam teased. "Now are you going to take me home and fuck me or do I need to start looking for another stud who can give me a ride?"
