It was Sunday morning and I decided to text Drew, Aaron, and Kurt.
[Shane]:
Hey, guys. Since we haven't gotten together for a while and I miss you, how about doing breakfast or lunch?
At least, that's what I told them. They didn't need to know the truth—Donovan was working and I needed to distract myself.
It wasn't until I stepped out of the shower that I regretted making plans with them. It wasn't them, it was the fact it looked like Donovan had beaten my neck and chest with a golf club.
How I did I not notice what he was doing?
I asked myself as I moved my head from side to side and ran my fingers along each bruise. I counted one, two, three...eleven hickies.
Eleven?
If I thought about it, it kind of made sense. Donovan had flawless and impeccable skin, a youthful vibrance, and he appeared to be impossibly strong for his size—he was clearly a vampire.
The real question was, how would I get through breakfast with the guys without any of them noticing this bout of domestic violence?
The love bites both annoyed me and turned me on. Donovan must've enjoyed last night as much as I did to cause this much damage. I smiled at the mirror and finished drying off while catching glimpses of Donovan's passion along the way. Did I want to hide them or show them off?
Hide them.
I snapped a picture of the damage and sent it to Donovan. I'd just finished getting dressed when I received his reply.
[Donovan]:
Looks like you could use an iron supplement. [link to article about anemia]
[Shane]:
Funny. Or you could not eat me alive.
I waited a minute for his reply. When it didn't come so I shoved my phone into my pocket or I'd end up staring at it for way too long.
It was July and it was hotter than normal, but I had a neck full of bruises I needed to cover up. After a lengthy inner debate, I decided the truck had air conditioning and so would the restaurant. I grabbed a fleece and zipped it all the way up, covering most of the bites, but there were still a few that could be detected if you were paying attention. I was banking on the fact the guys wouldn't pay attention.
******
He yanked my collar down, revealing the marks they weren't supposed to notice.
"
Oh, my god
!
Look at your neck
!" Drew yelled.
I ripped his hand away and readjusted my jacket to cover my neck as the group animatedly laughed at my expense. There was no use fighting it, so I decided to let them get it out of their system knowing, once they were over it, it would be closed business.
"Shane has a boyfriend! Shane has a boyfriend!" Aaron sang.
"Shane and Donovan, kissing in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G," Kurt added.
"We haven't seen Donovan, but it doesn't look like there was much kissing happening, not mutually anyway," Aaron teased.
The guys went on for ten minutes before they finally tired of bashing me and moved on. At least, Drew tired of it and decided to change the subject.
"Guess who I talked to, yesterday?"
After a few impossible possibilities were thrown out, Drew filled us in.
"Thad! He's back in town for a few weeks and, since Eddie had to leave to help his mom, he said he'll play on the team."
Thad was an ex of mine. He and I dated ten years ago, when we were both in our mid-twenties. We only dated because we hung out with the same people, liked the same things, and we were both gay. I guess those are valid points for a relationship but what we had was always more of a deep friendship than anything romantic. Moving in together or a long term future were never conversations that crossed our lips. After two and a half years we decided there wasn't anything solid between us, so we split but have remained friends.
"That's great, I haven't seen him for...six or seven years," I said, after realizing how long it had been.
"I don't think any of us have, but he's actually going to join us this morning. He just texted me that he's parking."
"This won't be a problem with your boyfriend, will it?" Drew looked at me with concern.
Of course, Drew
would
be the one concerned about Donovan in all of this. I rolled my eyes.
"First of all, he's not my boyfriend and second of all, there's nothing to be upset about, so I don't imagine it will be an issue."
"Mm-hmm."
He wasn't convinced, but it didn't matter since it wasn't any of his business, so I let the conversation drop. I saw Kurt and Aaron look up and smile. When I turned around, I saw Thad Kerrington walk through the door. He'd always been good looking, but thirty-five looked to be his best year yet.
His hair was still as blonde as ever, eyes grey sparkling. If anything had changed, it was the fact he was wearing an additional ten pounds of muscle. He walked over, smiling, and we all got up and greeted him with a round of '
hey mans'
and bro hugs.
We were in the middle of catching up when I felt my phone vibrate. I wasn't a big texter and everyone I talked to was at the table with me, so that meant only one thing, Donovan.
[Donovan]: Not eat you alive?
That's absolutely no fun, plus I didn't hear you complaining...unless the moaning and thrashing was your way of telling me you didn't like what was happening...and I doubt that. I g2g. Dinner?
I took a deep breath and bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling too much. There was no reason to overreact because it was only Donovan saying sexual things then asking me to dinner.
It wasn't a big deal
.
But it
was
a big deal
and I smiled as if it was a big deal, and then I almost laughed because I couldn't believe how giddy I was feeling. Giddy was definitely a word my dad would've frowned upon to use when describing feelings of masculinity.
[Shane]:
It's about time I get wined and dined
.
I smiled again and put my phone away, all the while thinking about dinner with Donovan. That's when I noticed it was unusually quiet and looked up to find everyone staring at me.
"What?" I looked around the group as they burst into laughter.
"Oh, man, you should've seen your face."
Aaron looked at his phone and mocked me by making dopey looking faces until Thad made a comment.
"I'm surprised to see you so lovesick."
Drew took it upon himself to reach over and pull my collar down, once again showing off Donovan's bites. Thad's mouth dropped with surprise.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing. Shane Kelly with not one hickey, but a baker's dozen? This from the same guy that barely acknowledged having a boyfriend in public and would freak out at the thought of necking? Who is this man? I must meet him."
"Donovan, and he's like no one you've ever met before," Drew gushed.
Aaron playfully hit the back of his hand against Drew's shoulder in a joking manner.
"It says a lot that he managed to get Shane and Drew to fall in love with him."
We'd been teasing Drew, for a while, about how he was secretly in love with Donovan and that he was pining after a gay man. To my knowledge, he wasn't bi nor had he ever messed around with a guy before, but he'd made a few comments over the years, which made it seem like he wasn't appalled by it, either. If the right
gay type situation
presented itself, he might see where it went.
We might have been joking about him and Donovan, but I knew there was a shred of truth about it and it's probably why he never really fought us on it. It didn't bother me because I understood where he was coming from and how easy it was to be attracted to Donovan. Drew turned his attention to Thad as if he were about to tell the secrets of the world to him.
"They can joke all they want, but Donovan's a fucking badass. Hypothetically,
if
I was to be gay or whatever...hell ya, it'd be with him! He's nice, he's funny, he doesn't give a shit, he's good at baseball, and he's as cute as hell...you know, for a guy."
We all laughed when he tried to shrug off his love confession as if it was no big thing. I felt my own heart swell a bit while listening to Drew talk so highly of Donovan. I knew all of the things he said were true, but it felt good to hear my friends agree. I'd been nervous they'd have a lot to say about me dating someone who was so...unlike anyone I'd ever dated before. Someone who took an hour to do his hair, had the skin of an angel, and was not the typical manly man that we were accustomed to.
I gripped the base of Drew's neck and squeezed enough to be moderately intimidating.
"You better watch it because he's my b—friend." I recovered quickly from my almost faux pas.
Donovan wasn't my boyfriend, but he also wasn't
not
my boyfriend and the look on my face must've been amusing because the boys roared with laughter and resumed their relentless teasing.
Kurt flicked my neck and laughed.
"Well, he's
some
kind of friend to mark you up like
that
