Car Ride with Liam

Liam was leaning against his car as I approached. A few girls I recognized were there too, though I didn’t know their names off the top of my head. They laughed at something he said before heading off with a wave.

“I leave you alone for a week and come back to find you chasing girls.”

He laughed. “I wish. It’s been a month since I got laid.” He paused, head turning back to where the two girls were walking away. I had to admit, one of them had really nice legs… I felt my face heat when I found Liam looking back at me. He had a sly smile on his face. “Caught you.”

“You were looking too.”

“Sure, but I don’t have a stupid hot girlfriend to take care of me.” He gestured to the car. “Come on.”

I noticed it was only the two of us. “Faith not coming?”

“Nah. She has some club stuff today.”

Getting in, I put on my seat belt as Liam got in beside me. He started the car and steered us into the line to get out of the lot. I noticed the car was making a funny noise but didn’t say anything. Maybe that was normal? Kaylee’s brand-new luxury car was spoiling me. I needed to remember my place was with the peasants. “I thought you only needed to abstain for two weeks?” Because of his condition and frequent illnesses, Liam never got the fertility test at sixteen like everyone else. Doctors wanted to make sure he ‘stabilized.’ That meant he was currently medically unranked.

“Yeah, but it was a good excuse.” Raising an eyebrow, I glanced over at him. He grinned. “What? You aren’t Lady Luck’s only dance partner.”

“I take it those two…?”

He nodded, the grin vanishing. “At first it was pretty cool. Never been too popular with the girls despite having this phenomenal body.” I rolled my eyes. To give him some credit, Liam was good looking. His strict workout routine helped too, though his reasons for hitting the gym were personal. Other guys worked out to better their chances with the girls because even though there may have been plenty of them out there looking for action, attractive girls were far more selective. Liam did it for his own health. Unfortunately for him, there was a bit of a stigma attached to him. Well, stigma might have been the wrong word. It wasn’t like people disliked him. Far from it. If his situation was different, Liam would probably be in the upper ranks of popularity. Girls didn’t seem to mind him being unranked or having to use condoms with him. The problem was people treated him like a glass doll where the slightest thing would break him. If there was one thing I learned early on, Liam hated that. Probably why we became friends. The first time I met him, I’d slugged him in the face for taking the swing I was playing on at recess. Our epic tussle had got us both sent to the office where the principal and staff reamed me a new one. Honestly, he had beat the shit out of me, having a year and a half on me, but he got off with a slap on the wrist.

We’d been best friends ever since.

“What, one of them ask you out? Both?”

“Nothing that serious. They just wanted…” He hesitated, glancing at me.

“Don’t hold back on my account.”

He shrugged. “They wanted to do stuff together.”

“Like… the three of you?”

“Yeah.”

I gave him a punch to the arm. “Isn’t that every guy's dream?”

He gave me a teasing grin. “There something I should tell Kaylee about?”

“Shut up.”

“Kaylee seems like a pretty open girl. I bet her and Zoe—”

“Bleh. Don’t even bring up that foul demon’s name in my presence.” He laughed and I immediately tried to pivot the conversation away from the topic of Kaylee. Considering what was going on right now, I was looking for a distraction. “So you using your test as an excuse to blow them off?”

“I’m not blowing them off. I just… need some time to think.”

Resting my hands behind my head, I settled back in the seat. “I don’t see the problem with it. Together. One at a time. What’s the difference?”

There was a snort from the other seat. “What is this, a session with Sex Guru Scott?”

I shrugged. “I usually charge by the minute, but considering you’re a friend I’ll let you off with a discount.” I turned my head. “But really. Why not? Seems kinda weird for you to be hesitant.”

“Oh, you calling me weird? Cute.” I waved that off and he laughed. “I suppose the whole thing is missing some context. Sam and Ally are in a pretty serious relationship but were kinda interested in boys too. Neither of them was experienced with guys, so they wanted someone at a similar level.”

“What a confidence booster.”

“Shut up. Two hot girls were asking me if I was willing to sleep with them on a regular basis. No way in hell am I going to let that opportunity slip past.” He sighed whimsically. “It was great too. Zero pressure and both were always so into it. Maybe it’s because they haven’t been with other guys, but they make me feel like I’m a god in bed.” He was grinning, scratching his cheek sheepishly.

“Sounds like you really like them.”

“I do.” He glanced over at me. “Not like that. I know what my place is in their relationship. I’m just the guy they have sex with. And that’s the problem. When it’s just two of us, everything is fine since we are focused on each other. I’m afraid that if the three of us do something, I’ll just be the third wheel. I don’t mind if I’m being used, but I don’t want to feel like I’m being used. If that makes sense.”

“I think I know how that is.”

We were at a red light, so Liam looked over at me, his eyebrows raised. “Oh? This a Kaylee thing?”

“No.”

“It’s only been a month, but you two have turned into quite the power couple. I think everyone was expecting you to crash and burn by now.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Hey, I never said I was expecting that. I’ve been friends with you two for a long time. I can see how this has been a good thing for both of you.”

“I’m not complaining, but it’s been… harder… than I thought it would be.”

“Relationships usually are.”

I took a deep breath, mentally shaking myself off. “Anyways. Don’t really want to get into all that right now.”

“No problem. Oh! You see the release date for Ship Smashers was updated?”

“Really? When?”

“Next month!”

“No shit? About time. Been waiting for that game for over a year now…”