Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“Alright.” Joel might’ve thought asking the internet for advice on how pretty his dick was reasonable, but as he climbed up off the floor, I was glad to see he understood where I was coming from. “And it might make my penis ugly.”
And we couldn’t have that.
Dean was still trying to work through everything logically and was coming up short. “Safety and a pretty penis are more important. You can show off again later.”
“You’re right.” Perking up again like some kind of windup toy, Joel kissed Dean’s cheek and then mine. “Clothes on and then the mission is to find food. I’ll save the day.”
I was starting to understand why his dates ended up so confused.
As Joel stretched out his arms and pretended to fly off to his bedroom, I turned to Dean. “You have a point on the not-an-adult thing.”
Whatever else Joel was had confused his dates because no one was expecting someone that squirrelly and that sexy to be a slow-burn date who only wanted a peck on the cheek.
Yep, we were going to have to sit down with Joel and explain a few things…and ask a few more questions.
“He’s…he’s really comfortable with us now, so that affects things too.” Dean was the most comfortable talking about anything else but himself, so I let him.
Joel’s voice filled the apartment as he started singing the Winnie the Pooh song.
Shaking my head, I smiled. “Do you remember how quiet he was for the first year we roomed together? I think he said five words that first month.”
“He left notes, though.” Dean chuckled. “My favorites were the ‘good job’ ones he left when we had tests and stuff.”
“Yeah, he couldn’t manage to tell me my dirty clothes on the floor were driving him crazy, but he could leave ‘atta boy’ notes all over the room.” I’d known there was something different about him, but I’d just assumed he was closeted and kind of weird.
I’d still been right on both those things, but there’d definitely been more we hadn’t discovered.
“One time he told me that his parents were neighbors for two years before they said hi to each other for the first time.” Dean glanced between me and the hallway Joel had disappeared down. “Do you think being demi is an inherited trait?”
Fuck if I knew.
“He’s lucky he’s gay.” The current generation of girls wouldn’t tolerate that level of interesting. Men, on the other hand, would tolerate a lot of weird if the dude in question was hot. “Come on. If we don’t get going, he’s going to decide it’s worth the damage to his elbow.”
Dean couldn’t seem to decide how to react to that. He opened and closed his mouth a few times and almost laughed as we went into the bathroom before he finally just dropped his voice and whispered. “Is he having sex with an imaginary friend in here?”
“That’s kind of what it sounded like?” Honestly, I wasn’t sure. “It explains the bruises on his arm, though.”
I was going to stop letting Joel get away with weird shit and start asking more questions. Dean looked like he would agree with that as long as he didn’t have to be the one asking, but I distracted him by turning on the water.
It worked, but it fried his brain. “I…you…”
Blink.
Goldfish mouth.
Blink.
“Do you have an imaginary bathtime friend that I need to take into consideration?” My question startled him into life again.
Shaking his head, he managed a normal breath. “No. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Good because I don’t know how to share the shower with an invisible person or what the etiquette is for that.” Joel would definitely be the type of person to have rules for us to follow.
Dean’s eyes went wide again. “We’re going to have to share with his invisible friend?”
Telling myself that at least he wasn’t worried about sharing the shower with Joel, I shrugged. “I think we can make a reasonable limit that only visible people can share the shower with us. It’s probably some kind of safety hazard.”
“Good.” As I reached for his shirt, Dean was so lost in thought that he just raised his arms without thinking. “I…oh…”
His brain skidded to a halt way too fast.
“Do you remember the safewords we agreed on?” His nod didn’t give me a lot of confidence. “The stoplight ones, right?”
He must’ve realized the problem because he swallowed and forced out audible responses. “Yes, stoplight colors. Red stops everything and yellow means we slow down and regroup.”
“That’s right.” Joel had wanted to be creative and pick out fun ones but with everyone else in the building using stoplight colors, I didn’t see why we needed to be that unique.
Besides, we were easily fucking distractable.
“Alright, you’ve got three options.” Really, he had one, but we were going to pretend he had more than that. “One is that I get in with you and wash you since you’re my sub at this point.”