Free Pisces: From Behind That Locked Door by Pepper Espinoza

get out of the date. He couldn't use homework as an excuse. Maybe he could text Amy and have her call him. Stephen was pretty smart, though. He might be suspicious if Jay's roommate just happened to have an emergency when Jay very clearly wanted to escape.
    "Jay?"
    "What?"
    "It's okay."
    Jay risked glancing over, surprised to see that Stephen was looking at him with obvious concern. "What's okay?"
    "That you haven't had a boyfriend before. If you're upset because I asked, then I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... offend you or anything."
    "I'm not offended. Or upset. Don't worry about it."
    "Okay... but I can see that you are. Whenever I say something you don't like, you clam up and start looking around, like you want an escape route."
    Jay didn't know what to say to that. An outright denial didn't seem like a good strategy, since Stephen probably wouldn't accept it. "I'm not offended. It's just... "
    "What?" Stephen prompted. "Tell me. If you don't, I'll keep putting my foot in my mouth."
    "I just... don't know why you even asked."
    "I don't understand."
    "It seemed like a pretty pointless question, that's all."
    "Why was it a pointless question?"
    Jay sighed. Stephen was really going to make him say it then. Fine. He didn't know what Stephen was playing at, but if he wanted to have this conversation, then Jay would go along with it. "Because you already knew the answer."
    "I didn't already know the answer. That's why I asked."
    Jay snorted. "Yeah, right. Like it's not perfectly obvious. I've never had a boyfriend, Stephen. Or... or anything else."
    "I see."
    "Yeah," Jay muttered as the light turned green. He made a left and pulled into the theater's parking lot, wishing more than ever that he could just go away. Somewhere far away.
    "Jay, I really didn't ask to upset you."
    "Okay. We better hurry, the movie is supposed to start in five minutes."
    "For what it's worth, it wasn't perfectly obvious to me."
    Jay nodded, but the words essentially went in one ear and out the other.
    "I mean it. You're what, twenty-four? Twenty-five? Why wouldn't you have ex-boyfriends?"
    "Okay, Stephen, I get it. It was a perfectly legit question. I answered it. Now let's go inside." Jay's heart thudded painfully.
    "Okay. Let's go inside."
    A dividing wall split the bar into two uneven spaces. To the left was the bar itself, two pool tables, and several tables, to the right was the cash register and concession stand--which had the standard popcorn, Whoppers and seven different types of beer on tap. The Other Guys was playing in the closest of the two theaters, and their plan to beat the crowd was surprisingly effective, since there was nobody else there.
    "One of the couches?" Stephen asked.
    Jay shrugged, not even thinking about the possibility of snuggling on the small, well-worn sofa placed in the back of the theater. He barely noticed when Stephen sat close enough to touch his thigh, thinking it was probably just that the couch was too small for both of them to sit comfortably. Within moments of settling in, the houselights went down and the projector clicked to life just above and behind them. With Stephen's attention on the screen and the darkness settling around them, Jay felt some of his earlier humiliation ease. It was always so easy to see bad intentions in the heat of the moment, even when it made far more sense to give Stephen the benefit of the doubt. Once again Jay wanted to apologize, though he had nothing tangible to apologize for.
    He was too caught up in his own thoughts to pay attention to the movie or to what Stephen was doing. Subsequently, he damned near jumped out of his skin when Stephen's fingers crept over his lap.
    "What are you... " Jay's breath caught in his throat as Stephen tugged at his fly, making it perfectly clear what he was doing. Jay wasn't hard until Stephen had his zipper pulled down. By the time he pushed his hand into Jay's pants, his cock was rigid and straining for attention, jerking in anticipation a split