Raw (RAW Family 1)

You know…just in case.

As I walk into the kitchen, the bathroom door opens and I hear thumping footsteps coming towards me. Dressed in only a towel and still wet from his shower, Dave engulfs me in a bear hug that I’m not ready for. Faceplanting into his wet chest, the ass hugs me tighter when I say a panicked and muffled, “Can’t. Breathe!”

Pinching his side, he chuckles and hugs me harder. Literally having my air supply cut off by a hard chest, I act on instinct. Given no other choice, I bite his nipple. Hard.

Dave yelps and jumps away from me, looking miffed but still grinning, “That hurt, bitchflaps!”

Placing a hand on my hip and breathing heavily, I screech, “I was almost suffocated by man-boob!”

Dave gasps, “Those boobs are muscular, fabulous pecs, ho!”

Unable to stop myself from laughing at his offended expression, I ask warily, while running a hand down my face, “Why’d you call a girls night? What’s up?”

He smiles like a goddamn loon. “All in good time. Nikki needs to be here for this.”

Rolling my eyes, I turn and walk into the kitchen, making sure to have Cocoa à la Lexi ready for whatever news my friend is going to tell us.

Placing the cocoa on a tray, I walk it over to my coffee table just as the front door to my unit opens. Looking up, I find a much too happy Nikki strolling in with a container.

A container full of...

“Double choc, peanut butter niknaks?” I almost screech. “You made double choc, peanut butter niknaks?”

Taking in her grin, I bounce on the spot in excitement. Those niknaks are the shit.

“What’s the occasion?” I ask from her side, reaching into the container. Slapping my hand away, she chuckles at my forlorn expression and utters, “All in good time, honey.”

When Dave strolls into the living area dressed in light grey sweat sans tee, towel drying his hair, he takes one look at Nikki and grins cockily, “I’m so glad you’re here!”

She sends him an equally winning smile and lays on the sweetness a little too thick. “Oh, sweetie, I missed you too! Come have a niknak.”

Dave spies the niknaks. His face pulls into a frown. Almost asking himself, he mutters, “Why do we have niknaks today?”

Nikki motions for us both to sit and says, “No. You go first! Tell us your big news!”

Dave, looking like a child being told he is allowed to jump on the bouncy castle, sits and starts, “Whelp. I know we had a little competition going on the other night with who would nail Happy…” Holy shit, this is news to me! My eyes widen in shock as he continues, “…so I hope there’s no hard feelings, sweet cheeks.”

Nikki’s eyes narrow dangerously. “What do you mean?”

Reaching for his cocoa, he sips then smirks into his mug. “I won.”

Nikki pulls the cocoa out of his hands and Dave glares at her, “Hey, it’s no big deal. He’s just into guy—”

But she cuts him off with an abrupt, “When? When did you fuck him?”

Dave clears his throat, “Well, technically, he fucked me. And the event occurred last night.”

Well. This is awkward. I wish the ground would swallow me up.

A small smile breaks out on Nikki’s face and I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s almost like the Mona Lisa smile. I narrow my eyes while searching her face. She’s hiding something.

Dave blinks a moment before he blurts out, “Well, this sucks. I thought I’d feel all triumphant, but now I just feel like poo on a shoe! Thanks, Nikki. Thanks a lot,” then shoves not one, but two niknaks into his mouth in an attempt to show his current state of depression.

My wide eyes drift from Nikki to Dave, while trying to blend into the background like a chameleon.

I read somewhere that they can smell fear. Be still and impersonate a leaf.

That’s when Nikki picks up a niknak and nibbles on it. With a sigh, she looks upset as she tells Dave, “Don’t sweat it, babe. But you’re wrong.”

Still nibbling her treat, Dave looks confused as he asks her, “What do you mean I’m wrong?”

Shoving the niknak into her mouth, she replies a garbled, “Oo didit in. I id.”

Dave and I look at each other, unable to decipher her food-talk. Dave shrugs. “Yeah, I didn’t quite catch that.”

Taking her time chewing, she finally swallows, stands, and points at Dave, shouting, “You didn’t win! I did!”

Poor Dave. His level of confusion just went from I don’t get it to I’m special.

He mutters, “What? Whe—?” Gasping, he stands, points right back at Nikki, and yells, “Extra-long bathroom break at the masque!” Narrowing his eyes accusingly, he shakes his finger in her face. “There was no line, was there? You were getting porked! By the hottie!”

I can only watch in surprise as Nikki curtsies and announces, “Best fifteen minutes I ever spent in a bathroom.”

Unable to stand being a mere spectator any longer, I also stand and holler, “Who are you people and what have you done with my best friends?”

Nikki and Dave look shocked at my outburst before they look at each other and burst into laughter.

Dave moves to stand by Nikki, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Honey, this isn’t news. We do stuff like this all the time. You know? Playing who can get the guy.”

Nikki leans into Dave and nods, “Yeah. He’s right. Not the first time. Won’t be the last, either.”

I’m dumbstruck. Mouth gaping, I clarify, “So neither of you are pissed at each other? You don’t care that you’ve slept with the same guy?”

Nikki scoffs, “No way. It’s all just for fun. We haven’t done it in a long time. Not since Dave and Phil were together, so it was overdue.”

Dave chuckles, “Yeah, we’ve even done three in a bed—” Nikki’s eyes widen as she elbows Dave in the ribs. He scowls at her, “Ow! What the hell was that for?”

My jaw hits the floor.

No. Effing. Way.

Leaning forward, I whisper-hiss, “You guys have done threesomes together?”

Dave’s eyes narrow at my outburst. He quickly realizes why Nikki elbowed him to keep his mouth shut. Slowly walking towards me, his eyes watch me carefully as he says, “Yes, baby, we have.”

I’m a little miffed that I didn’t know this. Best friends tell each other things like this. When he spots my obvious hurt, he wraps me up in a hug. “It’s got nothing to do with how we feel about you, babe. We were both just in places where we didn’t want you to judge us for what we like. I’m not saying you would’ve done that, but the possibility was enough to make us keep it to ourselves. We love you.”

Taking a moment to ponder what he just said, I wrap my arms around his waist and squeeze him tightly. Arms come around me from the back and Nikki kisses my hair. “We do love you, Lex. Thinking you wouldn’t get it or think we were weird was scary as fuck. Do you think we’re weird?”

God, are they right? Am I judgey? I thought I was pretty open-minded, but my initial reaction shows that’s not entirely true.

If they only knew about the things Twitch likes to do to you…

Sweet lord in heaven. Here I am, silently judging them when I’ve done the same thing. I haven’t told either of them the extent of my sexual relationship with Twitch; all I’ve told them is he likes it rough. They know nothing of his need for constant control, or the belt…

Sigh.

The belt. I love the belt.

Swallowing hard, I realize I’m not unlike them. And now that I’ve had a moment to gather myself, I tell them both, “No! I don’t think you’re weird, guys. It was just a shock. I guess I felt left out a little. So if you want to look at it like that…I’m the weird one!”

Group-hugging a little while longer, we release each other and spend most of the night chatting and eating niknaks. Around eleven, my friends leave. Waving them off, I shut the door behind me and make my way down the hall to my room.

As soon as the door opens, my heart skips a beat.

&n

bsp; Smiling a small smile, I listen to the footsteps as they make the slow decent towards me. Once my unexpected visitor reaches my back, his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me into him. Reaching back, I stroke his hair gently and say quietly, “Michael. He’s okay?”

Twitch sighs, “Been waiting most of the fuckin’ night for your friends to leave, so I don’t really wanna talk right now, Angel.”

He’s been waiting? Waiting patiently like a gentleman? Whoa. That is big. No, it’s huge.

Turning in his arms, I look up at him. With the lights off in my room, an angelic glow provided by the kitchen light in the distance covers his face. “You waited?”

His brow furrows in thought, as if he hadn’t even considered that fact. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

And I can’t stop myself. Reaching up, I cup his cheeks and pull him down to me. Our lips connect. His arms tighten around my waist, but his lips don’t respond to mine. “Kiss me,” I beg on a whisper.