LOGIN“I don’t want you to fuck Nathan.”The words came out harsher than Lukas meant, and his brain scrambled to fix them. He shifted on his feet, heat crawling up his neck. “I mean—I don’t want to fuck him either. I don’t want anyone to fuck Nathan.” He winced, dragging both hands down his face. “That’s not—shit. What I’m trying to say is, I just want you to fuck me. And just hang out. I guess, like…”He gestured helplessly toward the bed, then the door, like the right words might be hiding somewhere in the room. “Watching the game was fun, right? And maybe we can go to the bar again. But just—don’t touch him. Or maybe don’t touch anyone. Just touch me.”Aiden looked slightly stunned, watching Lukas fumble, then a wide, devastating smile broke across his lips.“Wait. That didn't sound right,” Lukas muttered.Aiden reached for him, fingers curling into his shirt, and pulled him down into a kiss. Lukas went willingly, blood rushing south fast enough to tent the front of his jeans. He wasn’t
Lukas was putting up decorations as slowly as humanly possible, barely glancing at where he was hanging them. Kara worked beside him, both of them pulling exaggerated faces at each other while they completed their unpaid labor.Every streamer and balloon was hung with all the enthusiasm of a funeral.Their mom kept passing by, gentle but relentless, reminding him of things that still needed doing and pointing out what to set out where. Lukas muttered under his breath each time, but grabbed whatever she shoved into his hand and carried on.Ell, meanwhile, was in the kitchen making mocktails with a couple of her loudest friends. Every time they found an excuse to wander through, they cornered Lukas with the same question: did he have any single teammates? He started answering with increasingly sarcastic lies—married, divorced, in jail, allergic to women—just to shut them up.His mom circled back around, her nagging softer than Ell’s but no less persistent. “You know, Lukas, it wouldn’t
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ell snapped, dumping a box of the streamers onto Kara’s dresser with a thud. “Not only have you ignored five hundred calls, Lukas, you thought sneaking around the house like a burglar was a better idea than walking in like a normal person?”Lukas peeled the stuffed animal off his face and blinked up at her. “Yes. Yes I did.”Ell glared. “I’m so not in the mood for your shit today. I need you to do some work.”“I see myself more in a managerial position,” Lukas said, stretching one arm lazily behind his head. “Delegating tasks. Supervising. You know, keeping morale up.”Ell’s eyes narrowed. “You make one more joke about this baby shower and I’ll wipe breastmilk on you.”Lukas wrinkled his nose. “You have that already?”“Kind of. There’s this watery, yellow-colored—”“Oh god, please, lalalalalala—” Lukas slapped his free hand over his ear and sat up, face twisted. “I’m leaving.”Before he could stand, Ell caught his good arm and shoved a box of decorations
Morning crept in slow and gray, seeping through the blinds in Mac’s spare room.Lukas woke to the unfamiliar quiet of the empty house, his head thick, his body heavy like he’d been wrestling with dreams all night. For a long moment he lay still, staring at the ceiling, the events of last night pressing down on him like a weight.The sheets smelled faintly of laundry detergent and dust, unused unless their teammates got drunk here, which they hadn't done since the start of the season.He shifted and groaned, his shoulder twinging, a dull reminder that even sleep didn’t give him peace. The silence wasn’t comforting, it was oppressive, every buzz of memory filling it. Nathan’s smirk. Aiden’s fury. His own hollow voice agreeing to something he didn’t even want.Rolling out of bed, Lukas rubbed a hand over his face. His mouth was dry, his head pounding, and his stomach turned at the thought of the peanut butter still sitting on Mac’s counter. He shoved his hoodie back on, padding barefoot
Lukas dug around in the dark until his fingers closed over the fake rock tucked beside the steps. This idiot never changed his hiding place. He popped the key free, shoved it into the lock, and shouldered his way inside. His phone buzzed nonstop in his pocket. By the time the door clicked shut behind him, the screen was lit with another round of missed calls. He stood there for a long moment, numb. Hollowed out. Moving on autopilot, like his body hadn’t caught up to the wreck in his head.Lukas made his way to the dark kitchen, tossing the phone onto the counter, not bothering with the lights.But then it rang again, a different name flashing across the screen and Lukas swiped it up.“Why the hell did my front door camera just give me a shot of your ugly ass breaking into my house at 1 a.m.?” Mac’s voice came sharp, but the bar noise around him bled through. Music thumping, glasses clinking, a girl giggling against the speaker.Lukas didn't answer, yanking open Mac’s fridge, and bat
“No.”Aiden's voice ripped through the tension, savage and unyielding. His hands were fists at his sides, knuckles white, every line of his body pulled taut with fury.“Absolutely not,” he said again, louder this time, each syllable vibrating with restraint. “You don’t walk in here, after everything you’ve done, and suggest something so vile.”Nathan blinked, startled for the first time all night, but quickly covered it with a smirk. “Vile? Please. You’re angry because you know it makes sense. Keep what we’ve built, have some fun—”“Get out. Or I swear I’ll drag you out myself.” Aiden’s voice dropped, low and dangerous, as he stalked a step closer. His shoulders were squared, chest heaving, every muscle coiled tight. “You’ve got a hell of a lot of nerve. I don’t know what happened between you and Lukas, but I know you didn’t treat him well enough to ask him any favors.” His eyes never left Nathan’s face, fury burning hot. “And if you actually believe you’ve got a shot at arranging som







