Page 87 of The Forever Vault

“-the all-around final.”

Holy shit.

“You were in the top twenty-four. It’s done. You’re in.”

I turned to watch Hudson pick Miles up and hold him up in the air above his head like Simba from The Lion King. Miles’ smile filled his face and then his eyes closed and it was clear he was crying again, so Hudson put him down and he took a seat, putting his head on the table.

Hudson and Ezra both had their hands on him. Hudson was rubbing his back, Ezra was holding his arm and half-hugging his left side.

“It’s a lot to take in for one morning, but I’m happy there’s a little good news out of this. Please talk to me and your coaches before leaving about a plan for the rest of the day, and take some time for yourselves to process this - yoga, meditation, kickboxing, whatever will help. I’ll let you know about your test results as soon as I hear, and the same goes for the press stuff.”

17

Lucas

Cam wasn’t responding to my texts, so I got out of bed, pulled some shorts on, and knocked on the door to Colton and Zeph’s suite. Hopefully they and Tyler were awake, and if not, then my knocking would do the trick.

“Morning, bro.” Tyler greeted me with a smile. His hair was long enough now that he had it braided to the side.

I was about to ask where the other two were but they came out of the bathroom, draped in only towels before I could. From the look of it, I’d guess they had just been fucking.

“Aw, mornin’ cowboy! You’re about ten minutes too late if you were lookin’ for some fun.”

“I think he had plenty of fun last night from the sound of it,” Zeph reached over to pinch his boyfriend’s nipple.

“You were listening? You guys couldn’t have watched a loud movie or something?” I turned to look at Ty.

“Don’t look at me. I had headphones on, bro.”

“So we weren’t supposed to jack off to it?” Zeph raised his eyebrows at me, then dropped his towel as he sauntered over to the dresser. I averted my eyes, though my peripheral vision was still full. Hard not to be when it’s that big.

“I don’t know how you play football with that in your pants,” I said.

“Doesn’t your boyfriend have any modesty?” Ty asked, then under his breath added, “I’ll be glad when I’m back in your room. Declan would kill me if he knew the number of times they’ve been naked around me.”

“Modesty is for people with small dicks.” Zeph ignored my comment and didn’t let Colton answer Ty’s question.

I glanced in Colton’s direction and he just smiled and shrugged.

And dropped his towel.

“Do you guys want me to leave you my number?”

Both Ty and I turned towards the bathroom, where a curly-haired blond was standing, wearing a pair of denim cut-offs and a cropped t-shirt.

Colton, still naked, walked over to the twink, and said, “Sure thing, princess.”

“Ugh, let’s go.” I grabbed Ty’s hand and pulled him through the door to my room.

While Ty picked through his duffle bag looking for his outfit for the day, I checked my phone. Again. Still nothing.

“What’s up? You seem tense,” Ty asked before pulling on faded almost torn-to-shreds jeans. I could see half his thigh through one of the legs.

I had to admit, despite Ty not being an active gymnast anymore, he still had the body.

“What?”

I smiled. “Nothing. Declan’s just a lucky guy is all.”