Care

Care:

Sera got out of her car keeping her head low, not wanting to make eye contact as she hurried through the rain, in bare feet, from her car to the front door of her best friend Billy's place. She dodged around a parked black pickup truck, hoping no-one hidden behind the tinted windows saw the wretched girl scampering through the rain.

Billy's flat was above a Chinese restaurant that wouldn't open until the evening, meaning it tended to be quiet in the mornings. It was early, the lights all seemed to be off upstairs. Sera didn't want to have this conversation over the intercom, so she took out her old spare key and let herself in quietly. She would make coffee, see what he made of the situation.

"Jesus..." Sera's head flicked up as she closed the door softly behind her, but Billy wasn't commenting on the state of her, or even blaspheming to convey surprise at her sudden appearance.

Sera wasn't really thinking, she thought he was on the phone or reacting to something on TV. She padded up the stairs wearily, sighing as she came to the top, looked through the open bedroom door...

And saw Billy's back flexing in the shadows as he lifted himself up and down in the lap of the big, naked, muscled guy in the bed underneath him.

They were both facing away from her but she was maybe a couple of metres away from where Billy was riding his lover's cock; while the guy held Billy's wrists straight out behind him, thrusting up into him with a steadily increasing pace.

Sera gasped, then realised and covered it. Neither of them noticed, they seemed to be on the final stretch. They were grunting and panting, sweat beading on the boyfriend's tattooed chest, along Billy's arched spine.

"Jamie... fuck..." Sera wasn't sure if Billy's moan was an instruction or not but his lover, Jamie, released his wrists, lifted up on one elbow to grab Billy's shoulder, pull him down harder onto his cock.

Sera felt her clit pulse, frustrated after a disappointing night with her now-ex and the lack of her usual morning orgasm in the shower. She knew she shouldn't be watching this, but it was captivating.

Billy was her best friend since college, and whilst she'd slept in the other room while he brought boyfriends home before, she'd never seen him this naked, certainly never caught him being fucked. Sera was frozen, not wanting to get caught watching them, not wanting to stop either. Her breathing quickened, she felt her nipples tauten, the instant sort of arousal she hadn't felt for a while.

"Billy..." Jamie's voice was an urgent low roar, Sera saw his hands grip hard, holding Billy down in his lap as the guy came hard, shuddering and letting out another hard purring growl.

"You fucker..." Billy cursed the guy out softly, sweetly, leaning back in Jamie's lap, his hand busy on his own cock, the other palm flat on Jamie's chest.

"You should know..." Jamie replied as Billy tensed up, freezing in place with Jamie still buried inside him, arching his back in pleasure, sweating and panting in exertion. "God..." They both tensed together, the last twitch of orgasm setting each other off.

Sera realised she was standing half-around the bedroom doorframe, the cool smooth painted surface pressed to her hot, aching pussy. If one of them looked this way there was no way she could pretend to have just spotted them. The tingling crimson blush pulsed in her cheeks, her nipples. Sera's fingers gripped at nothing by her sides, her mouth hung open in surprise.

"Jesus, Billy..." Jamie said as Billy fell forward on his hands, giving Sera a near-perfect view of Jamie sheathed in him, as Billy slowly eased himself off of the pulsing cock.

Jesus, Billy...

Sera could only agree.

Billy sighed, and Sera figured out that he was going to spot her just as he began to move. Sera stepped back, trying to hide if only for a second.

Her incautious bare foot hit the hard black toecap of a discarded boot, making her stumble. She reached out in panic for the railing next to the stairs, missed, twirled half around...

And fell down the stairs.

"Shit!" Sera yelped as she fell five or six steps; landing square on her ass with a spine-jarring impact, coming to a stop as she clung to the stairs under her.

"The fuck?" Billy's voice, followed by a thundering pair of thumps as the men got to their feet and investigated. Sera knelt on the stairs, one hand out for support and the other gripping the spreading hot pain down her left side.

She turned, blushing with shock, shame, and pain, and saw them both peering down at her from the top of the stairs.

Pulled by their own internal gravity, Sera's eyes wandered inexorably down the two naked, sweating bodies. Billy toned and slender, his boyfriend coarse and muscular; their lust apparent from the bobbing erect cocks that jutted out from their hips.

Billy was such a sweet guy, seeing him so intimately was a shock all its own. She'd wondered now and then, but now she knew. Billy was a bottom, which seemed a shame considering what he was inadvertently showing off right now.

"Christ, babe!" Billy's tone melted instantly. "Are you alright?" Billy struggled into the pair of underwear his boyfriend tossed to him and then hopped down the stairs to help Sera up.

"I'm fine, I think I just.." Sera said, somehow managing to blush even redder as she thought about what she had just interrupted. "Don't think anything's.." Her voice trailed off as a sharp pain twinged in her wrist and back, adding to the bruised ache on the left of her backside. "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to.."

Sera realised she wasn't finishing her sentences and took a breath, tried to calm down.

"Here, come on up." Billy led her by the hand back up the stairs, where his boyfriend had wrangled himself into a pair of jeans. Sera noticed but tried not to stare at the obvious bulge; feeling guilty for stopping them having fun, and also still fixated on the fierce passion she had just witnessed. "I thought you were working today."

"Tomorrow, my shift got changed." Sera said. Billy chuckled, catching his breath, smoothing his messy blonde hair. Sera let herself be helped up the stairs, her back was already aching and her wrist felt tight and swollen, so she didn't resist much as Billy led her to the kitchen table and sat her down.

"Sorry, babe." Billy was trying not to laugh. "Bet you didn't expect that, huh?"

They both laughed now, and Billy leaned in to give her the hug she had needed all morning. Warm and affectionate, a little bony around the ribs but familiar and dependable.

Sera cursed herself for it, but she was crying before he even let go of her.

"I'm just kidding, Sera." Billy got the wrong idea, thinking she was crying because of the shock. "Me and you don't exactly have a tonne of secrets, and one less now eh?" Billy's naked shoulders shook as he hugged her back to his chest, kissed her cheek in the automatic sort of way he always had.

Sera let herself laugh again, despite the tears.

"Yeah, that's not what I meant when I said I wanted to see you." She managed another chuckle. "But it's not that."

Billy's eyes narrowed, and Sera could tell he had it figured out in about three seconds. He looked past Sera to Jamie, who was looking for his clothes, a meaningful glance was exchanged.

"What happened?"

"He got a text early this morning, I picked it up by accident and..." Sera sniffed, determined to get through it. "There's some girl telling him what a great time she had fucking him, probably when I was away last week."

Another, longer look was exchanged between the two men. Billy wrapped his arms around Sera and set her across his lap, nuzzling into her shoulder, loyal friend on guard.

"Didn't even deny it, really." Sera's calm returned, in a shaky, pathetic sort of way. She sniffed, swiped at her eyes again, and hung onto Billy's chest; there had been a lot of heartbreak shared in this flat over the years since university, but somehow the intensity of it made the room feel different every time, some pocket dimension where they buried their hurt.

Billy kissed her cheek, and cuddled her harder every time she tried to let go of him. Jamie made coffee and watched them hugging in an amiable sort of way. Sera noticed the tattoos on his arms, the smaller one like a nameplate on his chest.

Didn't seem like Billy's usual type, who had described said type as 'cute or funny, preferably both' when asked before today. Sera knew she was distracting herself from the fresh betrayal, but it was something else to think about so she mentally replayed the sight that had greeted her before.

It was certainly another side of Billy she'd never quite expected. They talked about sex, as any close friends would over such a span of years, but to see it first-hand was...

"Shh..." Billy comforted her, mistaking the involuntary shiver for cold or upset. Sera got nervous and squirmed out of his lap.

"I'm alright, really." Sera said, not convincing anyone, looking self-consciously at the two men, still wearing nothing but what they had quickly thrown on.

Her face flushed hot, and she fought down the sensation. Not really embarrassed to have seen them before, but more shy to be seen by them now, as she tried and failed not to keep picturing it.

"Oh yeah, you two haven't met yet." Billy remembered as his boyfriend handed out steaming mugs of coffee. "Sera, this is Jamie." Billy gestured to the taller, thicker set man.

"Hi Jamie." Sera raised a hand in half-hearted wave, then wondered why and put it back down again.

"Jamie, Sera." Billy finished.

Jamie nodded to Sera and they each took a sip of coffee, the guy wasn't any less inscrutable up-close.

"You cold?" Billy asked her as Sera tucked her bare feet up on the chair she sat on. Jamie padded just out of the kitchen, hit the thermostat, came back to lean against the worktop since there were only two chairs.

Sera was between them, and considered the contrast. Clean-limbed, cute, boyish Billy on one side and the bigger, rougher, tattooed Jamie on the other. She thought about Alex, Billy's ex, and saw the appeal of contrast. Sometimes what you really want is something... different. Jamie seemed like a big departure from the cute effeminate guys he'd tended to bring back here from the clubs back in the day.

Sera smirked as she remembered the looks of concern as they helped her up, maybe twenty seconds after she walked in on them fucking. In that way at least they seemed alike.

Sera felt that jolt again, arcing up and back from her clit, folding inwards. She bore it without too much reaction, passing it off as another shiver. Absolutely the last thing she had expected to feel this morning, it was novel and compelling despite everything else.

"You came here in your bare feet?" Billy asked her, seeing the dirt from the wet pavement outside on her soles as she rubbed warmth into them.

"Yeah." She said, realising she'd been happily asleep with her boyfriend less than an hour ago. "Didn't want to stay there arguing so I just..." She trailed off, feeling stupid.

"He's still at your place?" Billy asked Sera, but his gaze went reflexively to meet Jamie's. Jamie shifted to sit back against the worktop, folding his arms.

Sera just nodded, unwilling to admit that she'd been so horrified by what happened it hadn't really occurred to her that it was her house, and that she should have kicked him out onto the street in his underwear, not run away to her best friend to talk things over.

She fished into the pocket of her hoody, took out her phone and keys, set them on the table. She checked it, saw half a dozen missed calls and as many unread texts, all from him, probably more stupid excuses.

"It's settled then." Billy took a dramatic sip of coffee, looking at Sera with a smirk. "We kill the prick."

Sera laughed, the trembling finally starting to die down.

"Don't tempt me, man." She tried not to imagine it, however attractive the anger made it seem. She'd been with him for five months, lived with him for two; she'd thought he was serious.

"I just..." It finally hit her that it was over, had to be over. She'd been worried about him flirting before, had accepted his explanation that he'd forgotten the hook-up app was still on his phone and he'd forgotten about it. "Fucking hell!" The anger flashed, she wanted to throw something but didn't.

"Hey, c'mere..." Billy knelt next to her chair, hugged her as she sat with her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry I just showed up." Sera said, feeling like a burden, wanting to get back in the car, be alone with her misery instead of spreading it around. She was shivering again, though this time it was the cold floor on her bare feet.

"It's totally fine, right Jamie?" Billy looked to his lover for support.

"I was looking forward to meeting you, Billy is always talking about you." Jamie said, Sera looked up to see his smile was warm and genuine. She nodded, dropping it finally.

"Nice to meet you too." She said, muffled by Billy's shoulder as she sat and cuddled him, partly for warmth but mostly for affection.

"I better get moving soon." Jamie said, retrieving his clothes one by one from around the flat, where he'd shed them in a lusty tousle with Billy halfway up the stairs.

"Thought you had the night off?" Billy asked, but a look from Jamie seemed to answer it.

"I gotta pick up a delivery, won't take long. I'll come back with breakfast." Jamie said, stretching a black t-shirt over his torso and then stepping into the chunky leather work-boots Sera had tripped over before.

"That sounds like a plan." Billy said, leaning back from the tight hug with Sera to accept a short but expressive kiss from Jamie. "Hurry back, right?"

Jamie just smiled, walking down the stairs and spinning his keys.

"Let's go to bed." Billy said to Sera as they heard the front door thump closed.

The bed was warm at least. Billy pulled the quilt over their heads, a bunker of privacy in lieu of the proper pillow fort they used to drunkenly construct together sometimes.

"Why the fuck didn't I see it?" Sera asked herself as much as Billy. "Why'd he have to go and..." Her voice cracked, the tears sprang back.

"Shh..." Billy soothed at her ear and then, after she curled into an exhausted ball of anger and grief, curled his body protectively around hers.

Sera sniffed and gave up on saying it. They'd had this conversation enough times not to need the prompt. Sometimes it had been Billy laying there curled in a ball of self-pity, sometimes it had been Sera. Every time they hoped would be the last, and every time so far they had been wrong.

"We're not thinking about all that today." Billy said, echoing her from a few years back. "We're just gonna lay here, warm up, and then when Jamie gets back we'll have breakfast. Everything else can wait." Billy was stroking her hair now, his limbs wrapped around her and his sympathetic voice at her ear.

Sera nodded slowly, stifling another sob with some effort, steadying herself.

"Jamie seems nice." She said, forcing herself to drop the miserable tone of voice, making her seem oddly chipper. Billy chuckled. "How did you meet?"

"It was romantic as hell, fairy-tale even." Billy said, and Sera rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see in the darkness.

"Tinder?"

"Yeah."

"Middle of the night?"

"Yeah."

"I look forward to the wedding." Sera hissed with laughter as Billy tickled her in revenge again, and then recoiled from the cold, damp ends of her yoga pants from where she had been walking barefoot.

"Here, don't wet my bed." He grinned and rolled across a little, reaching past her to a bedside drawer, then letting a pair of his clean underwear drop onto her chest.

Sera grumbled and struggled out of her wet clothes, Billy expertly flinging them into the laundry basket he habitually kept near the door.

"Need a towel?" Billy politely averted his limbs while she was naked in his bed, pulling the warm quilt around them both instead.

"I was gonna ask you that before I fell down the stairs earlier." Sera said and giggled again.

"God, you're not letting that go are you?"

"I'm not teasing you." She smirked.

"That's good, I'd hate to have to throw you out with no bottoms on." Billy said, cuddling back up to her once she had shrugged into the men's boxers. "What do you want for breakfast? I'll text Jamie."

Sera decided that any form of bagel from the sandwich shop would do, the coffee would be the active ingredient anyway. Billy tapped at his phone.

"He's so sweet!" She teased Billy with a cutesy voice. "Buying you sammiches!" The cutesy kid voice had always annoyed Billy, today he just grinned.

"Think he likes me?" Billy cuddled her front for a bit, keeping her bare chest warm with his. "Like, more than just a fling?"

Sera remembered the blissful motion of them together that morning, the tender little looks they gave each other.

"Sammiches don't lie. It's either love or he's a pushover." Sera grinned and kissed Billy's cheek. "Doesn't seem like a pushover to me."

"Mmm..." Billy gave an exaggeratedly lustful groan at the thought. "I like it when he pushes me around." Billy grinned, Sera hid her face in the side of his neck, pulling the covers over them both.

"You slut!" She called him, then shrieked with laughter and shock when he pinched her ass in retaliation, rolling them around.

"You're the one who's naked in my bed." Billy said, and pinned her down. Sera had to admit he had a point there. She just nodded, and Billy lay down. They went back to the cuddle they had been enjoying along with the talk of boys. "Jamie must think I'm running a hostel for wayward girls in here."

"Because of my plight, you mean?" Sera sighed.

Back to square fucking one.

She thought.

"Yeah, that." Billy watched her eyes. "Want to talk about it?"

The instant churn of wailing sadness that got to her in seconds was answer enough. Too soon for that conversation.

"No." She said, her voice cold for a second. "Maybe never."

"Alright, calm down

Ophelia

." Billy teased. "Don't go flinging yourself off a tower just yet, me and Jamie would have to avenge you."

"Yeah?" Sera was touched.

"Yeah, it'd take ages." Billy giggled until Sera did. But she felt the need to correct him anyway.

"Ophelia drowned. And she fell out of a tree because of madness, she didn't leap from a tower." Sera felt entitled to be negative today, but Billy didn't tolerate self-pity for long.

"Thanks for the literary critique, doll." Billy adjusted his grip around her, stroked her back. "You bring any clothes with you?" His voice was a rumble to Sera as she lay her head on his chest, then shook it slowly.

"Nope. Just me." Sera shivered, Billy tucked her in tighter, hugging her through the quilt.

"I'd better put yours on to wash then." Billy pecked her lips before getting out of bed. "I shan't be feeding you tonight if you haven't proper attire." His voice went into a haughty impression of some posh butler, picking up her damp clothes and bundling them in his hands.

Sera was already asleep when he slid back in next to her. He smiled at his friend grumbling in her sleep, spooned protectively around her, and dozed.

* * *

Sera woke up from some anxious, angry dream with a jolt.

"Hey..." Billy's arms shifted around her, still holding her tight. "It's alright, it's me."

For a couple of seconds she couldn't remember what she was upset about, then it came back in one remorseless surge.

It was early afternoon, as far as could be determined by the uniformly grey sky outside the windows. They had retreated to bed, mostly to keep her warm, partly so she could bury her head under the covers and hope that when she emerged it would be a year ago, and she hadn't even met her ex yet. Then she could stay here with Billy, getting stoned and watching cartoons, complaining about how single they both were.