bros (a bxb story)

Eight

Chapter Eight: Happy Birthday to Me

"Here, bro, happy fucking birthday," Kenny threw a wrapped box in my face, which thankfully I was able to grab before it smashed my freaking nose. It was heavy.

"Don't drop that! It's fragile," my blonde doppelganger teased.

It was a new thing in our Boardwalk Bros media, comparing me and Kenny. A side by side thing. We were just about the same height, the same build. Tall, lanky, but with lean muscles. The same longer loose wavy hair. But he was blonde and tan. I had dark brown hair and was pale. We'd had fan edits of sun and moon, good and evil, angel and the devil. He was the devil, by the way. I was always the angel. Our followers loved pinning me as the sweet, innocent one of our group. It always made me frown seeing what they thought of me, compared to how I saw myself these days.

We posted our own responses, spoofing their edits with a series of Sammy and Jeremy side by sides. Jeremy being tall and built, his shirt up, abs on display, biceps curled, his sexy smile, his dark hair and darker eyes. Laughing or drinking boba somewhere. Sammy barely came up to his shoulders. Thin, pale, soft. Longer blonde hair, more like Kenny's. Frowning. Grouchy. Book in his lap. Hoodie up. In the library.

Kenny and Jeremy planned all that shit out. I was just trying to keep my head above water. Drowning in boobs, used condoms and booze. Trying to not flunk my classes. My parents had already given me the talk. They were worried that the internet stuff, as they called it, was sidetracking me from my goals in life. I tried to listen to them, to take what they said seriously, but it was hard, when I was so hungover from the night before. And I kept having to move my phone so they wouldn't see the girl naked in my bed.

Sammy of course could care less. He just put his foot down at participating in any kind of overt boys love stuff in our content. He was okay being the butt of jokes, pulling harmless pranks, the TikTok dances, the questionnaire format, whatever. He just didn't want to get into the touchy stuff that Jeremy and I posted. It kind of left Kenny out of it, but instead he made content of trying to get with Sammy, and Sammy shooting him down. It was funny. Kenny knew how to edit for laughs.

I was totally unsurprised when I ripped open my present to find a new camera, the most expensive one out there, created specially for vlogging.

"Thanks, man," I hugged him. Of course he was filming it. I smiled at the camera, holding up the camera. Kenny kissed my cheek and smirked. He was always hoping people would ghost ship us, but no one seemed interested.

"Turn it off, for a second, okay?" Sammy said, pushing back his chair.

We were at the kitchen table. Eating breakfast, my birthday being a perfect excuse for a cheat day. Sammy surprised me by ordering all my favorites. It was a total pig out, literally. Filipino breakfast burritos, stuffed with eggs, garlic fried rice, longanisa sausage, sisig, bacon and hash browns, drenched in calamansi vinegar. French toast dripping with syrup and Nutella. Huge cups of black coffee. Pizza sized slices of juicy pink watermelon. We'd already filmed enough for a couple of shorts and a longer mukbang video. My stomach was simultaneously happy happy and uncomfortably ready to burst. It was easily the most I'd eaten in six months.

Sammy came back and sat down with a small box. He grabbed a stack of napkins and threw them at me. "Clean up. It's expensive."

I nodded, starting to feel something like apprehension. I wiped my hands and face.

"Bro, jeez, you still got...what a pig," Sammy shook his head in exasperation.

He grabbed a napkin, dipped it in a cup of water, and cleaned my face carefully. I looked up at him, as he leaned over me. When our eyes met, I felt something else, nervous, but...it was...and I...but.... I looked at his lips for a second. Just a freaking second! Not like I stared at them or anything. He totally needed chapstick! I mean it was winter, and they just looked dry!! I was just trying to be on the lookout to help my bro! That's all!!