Phoenix (6 page)

little at the sudden shift of attention onto him.

“Uh. Veterinary medicine,” Ethan said with a sheepish

smile. Devon’s brows rose in surprise and excitement. He

loved
animals.

“Ooh, that sounds fascinating. What kinda classes do you

have to take?” he asked, and Ethan looked pleasantly

surprised that he was so interested in it.

“Well uhm, like your typical core classes mostly for the

first year and then you have to take a bunch of classes

like…” Ethan paused thoughtfully and then began to list off

all the different classes, “Pharmacology, general pathology,

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Histology, gross anatomy, large animal surgery, small

animal medicine, animal behavior, and like bovine

procedures. I’m kinda nervous about that last one. Cows

freak me out.” He let out a hesitant sort of giggle and looked

away.

“Wow…that’s really cool,” Devon said with a wide grin

after stopping to consider it for a few moments. “I think I

may have just found my major, dude, thanks!”

Ethan looked up with a wide smile, unhindered by his

teeth in any way. It was probably the first actually genuine

expression he’d seen unfettered by nerves, and it was a

really nice sight to see. “O-oh, really? You’re welcome,” he

said.

Devon just smiled broadly and relaxed back again,

nodding firmly, content with his decision.

* * * *

Blake was perfectly content letting Devon and Riley talk,

and he knew Ethan was the same way. He was finding out

very fast that Devon was nothing if not a loudmouth. No,

more like a motor mouth. He didn’t find himself minding

very much.

“So are you guys from here or did you just come here for

school?” Devon asked, glancing from Riley, to Blake, to

Ethan, eyes widening expectantly.

“Well, I moved here from Illinois,” Blake said with a

chuckle. “Tiny little town, I hope I never have to go back.”

“Yeah, it kind of sucks,” Ethan agreed with a nod. “I lived

there, too, from high school on,” he explained as Devon

pulled a confused expression. The way he pulled it, though,

was comical to Blake, and he grinned to himself again.

“Well, I guess I’m the minority in saying that I was born

and raised here, huh?” Riley said with a teasing smile.

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Joey James Hook

Blake nodded. “Looks like it,” he said, and he could tell

he was starting to relax and ease into this ‘conversation’

thing. He’d always been weird and mildly paranoid about

making new friends outside of Ethan, but this wasn’t quite

as bad as he thought it was going to be.

“Yep, my dad went to this college and he pressured the

shit out of me to get a scholarship in football so I could go

here, too,” Riley said with a roll of his eyes, scratching at the

back of his neck as he stretched, muscled biceps shifting

under the light. Blake caught himself staring and shook

himself, looking away. “He’s the kind of guy who eats,

sleeps and breathes football. It’s kind of annoying.”

“My dad’s like that with baseball,” Blake laughed, trying

to get rid of the feeling of heaviness coming into his

stomach. Stupid crush. That’d never work. Why was he even

thinking that anyway? He couldn’t afford to be in a

relationship, and besides it was probably lust anyway. He’d

never given into that before, and the thought made him feel

sick to his stomach. Besides, Devon and Riley would

definitely be a better match. To distract himself from his

thoughts, he continued, “Well, maybe not that bad, but you

can’t get him out of the house when the World Series is on,

especially if it’s the Cubs playing.”

“My dad’s like that with soccer, especially the Italian

team,” Ethan spoke up with a light laugh. “It’s so funny

because he’ll sit in front of the TV for hours, intently

watching the game and cursing in Italian if his team fucks

up.”

Blake laughed quietly and shook his head, murmuring, “I

remember that.”

“Yeah, that’s how my dad gets with UCLA and shit like

that. He’s a real California teamer and he’s got a bit of an

anger problem so he has this habit of snapping at the

television when it’s done absolutely nothing to him. He’s

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Phoenix

broken at least a couple TVs before because of it,” Riley

piped up, but Blake noticed that Devon had gone quiet.

“Devon? You okay?” Blake asked in a markedly softer

voice. Devon seemed to shake himself and smiled with a

nod, but Blake could tell it was fake. Riley nudged him

gently, and suddenly Blake wished he could, too. He’d never

been one for physical contact with strangers, but Devon was

feeling less and less like a stranger the more they all talked.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just hearing about dads ‘n shit reminds

me that mine left me when I was nine, so I don’t remember

much about him,” he said, rather candidly than Blake had

expected.

Blake just nodded empathetically and relaxed a little.

“Oh. I’m sorry,” he said, his expression turning lopsided

with the emotion that he was feeling, his heart hurting a

little at the thought. He hated his dad sometimes, but the

thought of him not being in his life for the past ten years

kind of did hurt. Surprising, considering half the time he

pretended he didn’t have a father.

Devon shook his head and brushed it off like it didn’t

matter. “It’s fine, no big deal,” he said, but some niggling

feeling in the back of Blake’s head made him feel like it

wasn’t all right, and there was something there that was

begging to be let out, if only Devon would let it.

“All right, if you say so,” Blake said in a voice that was

gentle but not defeated. The knowing smile he gave surely

told Devon that he wasn’t fooled in the slightest. If he picked

up on it, though, he didn’t acknowledge it.

“Different subject!” Riley proclaimed in a thundering

tone. Ethan let out a snuffle, which was really a stifled snort

of laughter as he pulled his hoodie-covered hands up to his

mouth.

“Yes!” Devon echoed the enthusiasm in the other man’s

statement, eyes finally lighting up from their half-dulled

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Joey James Hook

state that had tipped Blake off in the first place.

Blake laughed a little and shook his head, amused but in a

removed sort of way. Devon had him intrigued. “Then pick

a subject, anyone,” he suggested with a grin. He sure as hell

wasn’t going to be picking a subject. His mind was still too

stuck on the whole gender thing to think of anything else

unless someone else brought it up.

“Favorite animal!” Devon suggested decisively, nodding

and grinning in a way that forced all of them to dissolve into

a helpless fit of laughter.

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Phoenix

he rest of the dinner was spent horsing around,

T throwing fries at each other, and just generally being

retarded. Even Ethan opened up and nailed Devon in the

eye with a french fry, only to snicker and draw back

sheepishly, but still grinning widely.

“Aaahh! I’m down! Death by fry!” Devon called

dramatically, falling back onto the booth and letting his head

fall against Riley’s bicep.

“Oh, quit being a drama queen,” Riley told him in a

mock-harsh voice.

“Yeah, jeez,” Blake added with a laugh, shaking his head

and going back to eating his food. It was nice to be away

from schoolwork for a while, just hanging out with friends

and having a good time. Not once had any of them given

him a dark sidelong glance, even though the waitress had.

He didn’t understand what it was, but girls could pick up

on his trans status faster than other guys. They’d notice one

feminine quality and focus on it, and tonight was no

exception. He’d been getting weird looks from their waitress

all night.

He’d been nice enough to her, of course, keeping his voice

low to prove his point so to speak. He didn’t need to try

much anymore because of the testosterone, but whenever he

felt like he was close to being outed, he deepened his voice

even further. Ethan had unlatched from him and was sitting

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Joey James Hook

straight on his own now, which was a huge thing, but it also

made Blake feel incredibly unbalanced. He felt like he

needed someone or something to anchor him every time she

came over and pointedly spoke differently to him than all

the other guys.

“Jesus, what’s that girl’s problem?” Riley asked with a roll

of his eyes after the waitress walked away.

Blake shrugged, not willing to out himself here and now.

Even though, for all he knew, Riley already knew and was

just playing along. “Dunno, maybe she’s just a bitch,” he

said.

“Well, I think we figured that out,” Devon piped up with

a snort of laughter before munching on one of the fries, one

of three he still had left.

“Damn, you demolished those fries,” Blake noted to

change the subject, giving an amused smile as he slung one

arm over his chest protectively without even thinking about

it. He knew by now that it was one of his defense

mechanisms.

“Yes, I did!” Devon proclaimed, pride evident in his

voice.

Riley just grinned and leaned over, grabbing one of the

last fries and shoving it in his mouth with a goofy sort of

grin, and Ethan snorted in laughter from beside him.

“Hey,” Devon drawled, a pout edging onto his full lips as

his shoulders slumped. “That was mine.”

“You’ve still got two more,” Riley replied with a broad

grin that said he wasn’t affected by the pout that Devon was

trying to win him over with. “And besides, what’re you

trying to achieve by pouting at me like that? You want me to

regurgitate it?”

Devon laughed and shook his head, the pout melting as

he shoved the last two fries in his mouth decisively. “Nope,”

he said through the food, grinning before turning his

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attention to chewing the food he’d thoughtlessly put in

there.

“Too big for you, bigmouth?” Blake teased, and Devon

scrunched up his nose at him as he chewed.

“You guys are all so mean,” he said through the potatoes

in his mouth, swallowing and clearing his throat before he

spoke again. “So very mean. Pick on the new kid, why don’t

you?”

“But you’re so much fun to pick on,” Riley pointed out

with a wolfish grin.

“Agreed,” both Blake and Ethan spoke at the same time.

Blake looked over at his best friend and grinned broadly at

him, seeing that Ethan was beaming right back at him.

“So, quick question. Are you guys dating?” Devon asked,

and Blake looked up quickly, raising his eyebrows.

“Uh. No. We’re not,” he said quickly, glancing at Ethan

and seeing that his face was reserved. That was weird. It was

throwing up all sorts of red flags, but he wasn’t going to call

his best friend out on it in public. “He’s my best friend,” he

reaffirmed.

“Yeah, best friends,” Ethan said with a small smile,

brushing his short black hair out of his face and attempting

to tuck it behind his ear but failing as it fell right back in

front of his eyes.

“Huh. Okay!” Devon said, but Blake could already tell he

wasn’t convinced. He looked up in time to see the way

Devon rolled his eyes. He was more concerned with the way

Ethan’s face changed when the question was asked. Eh, he’d

ask him about it later.

“Just so you guys know everyone up at the school pretty

much thinks you are,” Riley interjected in a kind voice, and

Blake shot him a sheepish smile. “Especially Dominic. He

never shuts up about it.”

“Dominic can go to hell for all I care,” Blake muttered,

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Joey James Hook

seeing a grim sort of smile cross Riley’s face. That bruise still

looked pretty bad, he idly noted.

“Well they think we’re dating because we’ve pretended to

be together to get creepy guys off Blake,” Ethan spoke up,

and Blake looked down as he felt Ethan’s hand move to rest

on his knee. He smiled a bit and looked back up, completely

comfortable with the move.

“Oh. Well, that makes more sense, then,” Riley chuckled,