Page 33 of Dickathlon

“No.” His brow furrowed. “Why?”

Fuck it. “I texted you almost immediately after Brisbane and you never responded.”

“I never got a text from you.”

“I told you he texted you,” I heard Freddie whisper.

“Shh. Uh, can you show me what you texted?”

I pulled my phone out my backpack and scrolled to his name, opening the text chain. I turned my phone to show him. He stared at it, then asked, “May I?” holding out his hand. I gave him the phone.

In just a few seconds, he said, “Fuck. Either you misheard me when you typed it in, or you heard correctly and mistyped it. That’s not my number.”

Oh sweet fucking God. Thank you.

“Oh.” I stood there for a second, noticing how close he was standing to me. I watched a drop of water drip down his chest. He must’ve noticed me staring because he cleared his throat. “Well, that makes me feel a little better. I thought you were ignoring me.”

“You don’t have Instagram on your phone.”

“Boundaries, Declan!” Freddie hissed.

Now, it was my turn to be confused.

Declan explained, “When you never texted me, I DMed you on Insta. You never responded. Now I know why.” He handed me back my phone. “You don’t have it.”

“Yeah, I deleted it around Christmas, I think. I may have been stalking- I mean spending, definitely spending, too much time on it.”

Declan smiled, his dimples popped, and fuck if my knees didn’t almost give out.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave,” Freddie interjected.

“You don’t have to Freddie.”

“I’ll find something to do, Declan. Don’t worry about me.”

“You’re not-”

“No, Tyler. We are not.” Freddie placed a hand on his chest. “I am straight.” Then touched Declan’s shoulder. “This one’s all yours.” Before he left, Freddie turned to Declan and said, “I get it now. You were right. There’s something about him.” He leaned in to whisper, “And he’s hot,” but I could still hear all of it.

I’m right here, bro.

I felt the heat rise from my crotch into my face. I couldn’t possibly describe everything I was feeling. Declan had been talking about me to another dude, a friend. He messaged me on Instagram. I couldn’t open the App Store fast enough to redownload it. I told myself I was giving Declan time to stop blushing.

“I’d love to take you out to lunch, Ty. If you want.”

I couldn’t form words, so I nodded. And secretly hoped the monster bulge in his trunks was growing because of me.

We walked maybe about ten minutes, filling each other in on why we were both in Santa Cruz. He laughed when he heard about the Nines trip and I couldn’t stop myself from telling him about the sex fest that was my temporary residence. He and Freddie were also here with a group of friends, but just for the weekend. He went on to explain how he and Freddie met and I had some questions, but kept them to myself for now. I was curious if he had been with anyone since Brisbane. I had not, though I guess I tried. Looking back, I probably didn’t try very hard.

We stopped in front of a hole-in-the-wall bar. The sign read, 'Dogs and Grogs'.

“I know it doesn’t look like much, but trust me, it’s really tasty.”

I tried to give him a skeptical look, but gave in. “I trust you.”

Stop looking at his lips.

Has chewing always been this sexy?