After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

Corey didn’t know what it was, and it made him feel uncomfortable, and something else, something that seemed like he was kinda…mad that he knew Duncan would be that way even if his dad didn’t make him play football.

Duncan just…did stuff.

It wasn’t just all the hiking around.

He climbed trees to get better views. And he swam in the creek, saying swimming in a creek or some pond was “so much better than any swimming pool, totally.” And his dad made him chop wood for the fireplace, and Duncan didn’t mind that, because he was outside and he was moving and, “The smell of just cut wood, man, nothing smells that good.” Or, “I could sweat forever, tackling a stupid dummy over and over. But this, this is the good kind of sweat.”

Corey had never smelled just cut wood (or if he had, he didn’t think about it because only Duncan would think things like that, everyone else knew that nothing smelled as good as cookies in the oven). Corey also had zero interest in tackling a dummy or wielding an ax.

Corey also didn’t look like Duncan.

Nothing like it.

Oh, he’d gotten tall.

But as much as it sucked, he couldn’t say they were wrong in calling him The Stick.

“So?” he asked, even if he didn’t have to ask, what with that stupid look on Dun’s face.

It was also that he knew.

He knew more than Duncan knew before Dun had gone off to do what he’d just done, kinda nervous, like he didn’t already know it was all good.

Yeah, Corey knew. He’d been living this nightmare now for what seemed like forever.

Dun and Genny.

They were into each other.

Big time.

So before he even asked, before he’d even seen that fucking look on Dun’s face, he knew she’d said yes to Duncan taking them out of the friend zone.

Asking her out.

Duncan sat on the steps beside Corey. He did this two steps down, and still, his big body seemed to take all the space.

Dun leaned back into his elbows and smiled at his backyard.

“We’re goin’ out on Saturday,” he told the yard, not stopping smiling even when he was talking.

“That’s fucking awesome,” Corey lied, trying hard to sound like he was super excited, but that feeling was back.

The burn.

It was intense and it made him feel like he wasn’t doing something he really, really needed to do.

Throw something.

Kick something.

Yell at something.

Hurt something.

Duncan dropped his head back and turned it so he could look at Corey.

And Corey braced at the happy look on Duncan’s face.

God, he’d never looked that happy.

Maybe he’d never even been that happy.

“Kissed her, man.”

Yeah.

Fuck yeah.

Corey needed to hurt something.

“Wow, whoa. Wow,” was all Corey could think to say. Then he pushed out, “Cool.”

Duncan’s eyes moved again to the yard, real slow, like all drifty as he said, “She tastes like, I don’t know, fresh. But warm. Like fruit, but not. Peach cobbler or something.”

“Girls have lip gloss that tastes like that,” Corey informed him of something he had absolutely no clue about seeing as he’d never kissed a girl.

Though he’d heard something like that.

Duncan turned back to him. “She wasn’t wearing lip gloss and I wasn’t talking about how her lips taste.”

Corey was sickened.

Pissed.

And intrigued.

“You mean, you slipped her the tongue?” he asked.

Duncan nodded.

Then Corey watched as his friend shut down.

That was going to be it.

And he knew that before Duncan could say anything to draw that line.

That was all Corey was going to get.

This wasn’t going to be his.

This was going to be theirs.

Duncan would kiss her more, and Corey would never know.

He’d touch her, and Corey wouldn’t know that either.

Eventually, he’d have sex with her, and Corey also wouldn’t know that.

Duncan wouldn’t tell him when Genny sucked Dun’s cock.

Or how she felt down…there.

But all that was going to happen.

It was going to happen.

Forever.

Forever it would happen.

Because nothing would break them up.

Not their three.

And now, not their two.

He knew that. Fuck, to his bones, he knew that with that look on Duncan’s face.

How happy he was.

How completely happy.

Duncan had always been like this.

He always knew what he liked. He always knew what he wanted. He always knew how he wanted to be.

Now, he knew who he wanted to be with.

And when Duncan knew something, decided something, it just was.

Corey felt his palms get sweaty, his throat get hot, and he also felt his dick start to get hard.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

That wasn’t about Duncan.

It was about her.

Genny and her golden hair and her mouth that he now knew (but would never know) tasting like peach cobbler and thinking about getting a blowjob.

From her.

“Anyway, we’re going out,” Duncan said. “To dinner,” he finished, like that was important.

And maybe it was.

“Not to the drive-in or something?” Corey asked, because that’s where guys took girls on dates so they could make out and feel girls up. And it was cheap and dark and private, but not totally private. People could see them through the car windows, and they’d talk, and the guy could brag about how far he got, but others would see it, so they’d know, which was bonus points for a guy (obviously).