I note that he waves at everyone but us.“Wait,” Drew says, “so your mom is a famous actress, whom you hate, but yet you want to follow in her footsteps? I don’t get your line of thinking.”
Mia drains her mule and sets it down on the coffee table, animated by the alcohol and her feelings toward her mother. “No. I have been shaped by her career, but I’m not following in her footsteps. I want to make the movies, not be in them.”
“Like a director?” Drew asks.
“The writer.” She blows a hair out of her flushed face. “I want to write the screenplays. To be the beginning of something that eventually turns into a movie. How cool would it be to watch a film, hearing them say dialogue you carefully labored over? To see the scenes take on visual life? To hear the songs and sounds you thought up?” She sighs. “I just think it would be one of the coolest things ever.”
“You better invite us to your first movie,” I tell her.
She grins. “Of course the three of you will be there. You’re my people.” She holds up her empty metal mug and shakes it. “Who wants another?”
I hand her mine, but Drew and Ashton are still working on theirs.
“What about you, Ash?” Drew asks. “Mia’s our moviemaker and Bray’s our future NHL player. What’s the notorious Mr. Carter going to do?”
“I’m going to be a doctor.” He shrugs.
Drew snorts. “For real. What do you really want to be?”
“A doctor. Not like an ER doctor or a surgeon or some shit,” Ashton continues. “Psychiatrist.”
“Dr. Carter then.” Drew chuckles. “I like it.”
Ashton’s brow lifts. “You’re not going to give me hell about it? Say I’m not focused enough or serious enough or smart enough?” There’s a challenge in his tone. His knee is bouncing where he’s sitting in an armchair and his hazel eyes are blazing.
“Nah, man. I think you’d be good at it. You read people well and make them feel better about themselves.”
Ashton shoots his stare my way, confused by Drew’s words. I nod in agreement. At first, Ashton can be a hard pill to swallow, but once you do, you’re high off him. Addicted. You need him to feel complete.
My chest aches as I consider that. I’m not sure when he fell into the best friend category with Drew, but he did. He and Mia both did.
Mia bounces back into the room, her cute braided pigtails coming undone with flyaway hairs. She hands me a mule and then sits in Ashton’s lap. He playfully nips at her tit through her sweatshirt. I find myself fixated on the way his lips curl away from his teeth—a wicked smile forming—as he bites her.
“So who fucked who first?” Ashton blurts out, cupping Mia’s tit with his hand and grinning at us.
I laugh and shrug, looking down at my drink. Drew mumbles at him to mind his own business. The room grows quiet. I suck down my drink, needing to do something with myself.
“Wait…” Ashton says slowly. “You two haven’t fucked.”
Drew and I both snap our heads up to stare at him. Ashton’s eyes are wide and so are Mia’s. Like they’re shocked.
“It’s not that we haven’t wanted to,” I bite out, annoyed at their expressions.
“We just…” Drew utters.
“Don’t know how?” Ashton offers, his brows furled together.
“I’ve seen gay porn.” I lean forward and drop my empty mug on the table. “Just never did it before.”
“But you want to,” Ashton probes.
We both nod.
Mia’s eyebrows are perked up, intrigued by our conversation.
“When?” Ashton asks. “Now?”
We all laugh, but then it grows quiet again.
“What if we fuck it up?” Drew mutters, voicing my own reservations. “What if I hurt him or he hurts me?” His hand covers mine and squeezes. “I don’t want to mess this up.”
Ashton darts his gaze back and forth between us. “It’s sex, not rocket science. I’ve been fucking guys since I was fifteen. Been getting fucked by them just as long.”
“It’s fine,” I grumble. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe they need a coach,” Mia offers.
Drew snorts. “Ashton as a sex coach. That ought to get interesting.”
“I didn’t hear a no,” Ashton says, his lips kicking up into a devious grin. “Is that what you need, dude bro Bray? Someone to coach you on how to put your dick in?”
I laugh, flipping him off. “You’re an asshole.”
“The asshole who’s going to teach you how to put it into his asshole,” he deadpans.
Drew smirks, leaning back on the couch, shooting me a curious look. “So I’m getting fucked first, hmm?”
“Yes,” Ashton answers like the bossy fucker he is. “Brayden’s been wanting to fuck you since he first grew a pecker. Right, little buddy?”
I shoot him the bird again. “I revealed too much crap to you when these two weren’t talking to us. I regret that shit now.”