Cheating The Deck [boyxboy]

Cheating The Deck {29} END

"I feel like I'm babysitting," Christian said in annoyance. "All of you shut up."

"Ace, this is your cue to go fuck your boyfriend and leave all of us alone," Jer said, dismissing me with an impatient wave.

"Don't be jealous just because you're not getting any," I said, snickering and ducking as he chucked his fork at my head. It hit the cabinet behind me and clattered to the ground. "You can pick that up yourself. Or just eat with your hands like the savage you are. Can't blame you for not having manners, though. I wouldn't have manners either if my parents were so doped up all the time that they couldn't teach me any."

"They may not have taught me manners but my dad taught me how to stab the shit out of a man," Jer snarled, picking up his knife. "Get out of my fucking sight, Ace."

"I love family time in this house," I said, smirking and slipping out of the kitchen.

I went upstairs and grabbed my phone, texting Jack before shrugging into a jacket and grabbing my wallet. I headed back downstairs, pulled my shoes on, and opened the front door.

"I'm off to go get laid by my boyfriend while Jer gets to know his hand," I called, shutting the door.

The guys and I had started a habit of making sure at least one person in the house knew where we were going when we went out. It was another of our silent ways to show that we did get worried about each other.

We still weren't hugging each other and declaring our brotherly love at every chance, but we were slowly and silently finding more ways to show it. It made it easier to call our house a home.

I grabbed my bike out of the garage and took off down the street on it, biking at a steady pace as I took in the change happening around me. Fall had crept up, sucking away the hot, bright world of summer and replacing it with a chilly air and a breathtaking color of leaves and decorations.

Halloween would be coming up soon enough, though it felt like summer had just started yesterday. It'd been raining steadily more as the days passed, making our trips to work more coordinated to try to get everyone there in a car. Teamwork wasn't our specialty, but we made it work. Jack would help me out from time to time if I really needed it.

His apartment loomed up in front of me, lazily decorated with badly carved pumpkins and cheap window stickers. I ditched my bike at the side of the apartment and went up, letting myself in.

By the time I'd reached the kitchen, the stairs creaking under my weight had given me away. Jack, Delaney, and Nico were gathered around their kitchen table with alcohol and apple cider, and none of them bothered a glance my way as I walked in, used to my presence here by now.

"No, no, no. I hate haunted houses, haunted mazes, and haunted rides. I hate haunted anything!" Nico was saying.

"Your girlfriend can comfort you through the whole thing," Jack said, patting Nico's back sympathetically. "You tough man, you."

"Hey, Jack, why don't you go fuck yourself?" Nico said, pushing Jack's hand off. "Do we really have to do something haunted? Can't we just...I don't know...get drunk and watch a bad horror movie?"

"That would scare you, too. You're a pussy," Delaney said.

"Oh, rich coming from you. I bet you have nightmares of Sharknado," Nico shot back.