Sunset Park (2 page)

Growling in frustration, I ripped my phone out of the dock.

Porn. Porn was good. Porn was what I needed. And I had a whole cache of gay videos stashed in my browser for the special occasions when I needed to satisfy my brimming curiosity without involving another dude. Not that I had ever actually involved another dude.

I thumbed to my favorite vid and had lube squeezed into my hand in seconds. I was pumping my dick before the first tinny moans emanated from the speaker.

It was straightforward hardcore porn. There was no scene setting or bad acting. Just a twink impaling himself on a big, tatted-up dude’s cock, while his face was being shoved against the floor.

My eyes zeroed in on the big guy spreading open the twink’s asscheeks. His fingers dug into the smooth pale flesh hard enough to leave red marks.

The combination of roughness and the bottom’s stuttering cries had precome pooling at the crown of my cock. I’d seen the video dozens of times before, but the sound of those helpless moans and the sight of that slim body being manhandled and used still made me breathless.

I got myself off with frantic, trembling strokes, and when the twink came hands-free, I ejaculated all over my jersey.

After that, my brain died, and I dozed off with the video still playing and jizz splattered all over the black-and-white Nets logo on my chest. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes when a loud knock startled me out of my orgasm-induced coma.

“Ray, are you dead in there?”

I shoved my phone in the drawer of my side table, bolted off the bed, and was stripping off my jersey when Nunzio barged in like the no-manners-having goombah that he was.

“Damn, don’t you knock?”

Nunzio flopped onto my bed, shirtless and with his black hair wilder than usual due to his recent sexcapade. Unfazed by the mess, he nestled in the unmade bed and looked at the chaos of wires, consoles, and dusty game cases littering my room. Though the entertainment center was too large, it had enough space to house my multiple consoles. Gaming had always been my favorite hobby. It had been Nunzio’s too, which was why we’d bonded when I was a kid. Michael had always preferred reading to racing games and first person shooters.

“I did knock.”

“Usually when people knock, they wait for someone to say come in.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry, Mom.” Nunzio arched his back in a stretch before rolling on his side to watch me search through mounds of dirty clothing for a clean shirt. “Are you going out tonight?”

I gave up on the shirt and resigned myself to having to sit around half-naked while he reeked of sex, sweat, and my big brother. Things were starting to get a little too cozy ’round these parts, primarily because I was becoming far too aware of what they were doing and when they were doing it.

“No,” I said. “Every time these people invite me out, it ends up being some nonstop drink-a-thon, and I don’t have money for that shit.”

“You don’t have to drink just because you go out.”

“If I’m going to deal with a bunch of idiots, I do.” I sprawled on the bed and leaned against the headboard. “So… what the hell do you want?”

“To smoke? Play some
Call of Duty
?”

“Knock yourself out—” He opened the drawer in the bedside table to get my pipe, and I nearly bit off my tongue. “Zio—”

I was way too late. Nunzio wasn’t just seeing my open bottle of lubricant—he was picking up my phone and staring at it quizzically. Craning my neck, I saw an ad pop up on the screen for live chat with sexy gay dudes in my area. Nunzio glanced at me, then at the phone, and closed the pop-up with a flick of his fingers.

“Probably, like… a virus.”

“I thought iPhones didn’t get viruses?”

“What are you, a fucking expert? Maybe it’s an act of God. Or terrorism.”

“Hmm.” Nunzio looked about as convinced as he had the time I tried to tell him that I’d forgone job hunting for years due to a lucrative career uploading Xtube videos. But he didn’t question me or make any smart comments until my phone went apeshit with the vibrating and flashing, and David’s insistent messages popped up again. Nunzio’s expression went from quizzical to dismayed with a steady sense of purpose. “I can’t believe you’re so chummy with that kid.”

“Why? He’s not so bad.”

“You think that because you didn’t have to work with him.”

“Yeah, aiight.” I plucked my phone from his grasp and thumbed through the texts. It was nothing more than ongoing, one-sided commentary about the annoying conversations David was enduring at a housewarming party in an uptown penthouse full of people more WASPy than himself. There was also a mopey text complaining that I hadn’t even considered his invitation to join. Because that was totally my scene. “You barely worked with him before switching to that GED center. You’re just all bent out of shape and jealous because he had a crush on Michael for three minutes.”

Nunzio grabbed my pipe and a lighter. “First, it’s not a GED center. It’s an LGBT center, and I teach GED classes there. Second, it was longer than three minutes. Your brother just downplays it so I come off looking like an insecure little bitch.”

“Maybe ’cause you are one.”

His answer came in the form of a flicked lighter and a deep inhale.

I sent a semicomforting message to David, telling him that I was suffering the nosy inquisition of my faux brother-in-law, and he responded with an
ugh
. Apparently, David hadn’t quite recovered from the days of Nunzio mean mugging him out of jealousy. What a soap opera.

Nunzio blew smoke at me, his hooded eyes more observant than I felt comfortable with at the moment. “What do you even do together? You have nothing in common.”

“So? I’m only supposed to hang out with people who play video games and handball?”

“No, stupid ass. Why are you being so defensive?”

“Because you people act like I can only get along with certain types of people, and that’s annoying.” I held up my hands, pretending to cower before making an exaggerated sign of the cross. “¡Dios mío! Keep back, blanquitos! I’m so skurred ’cause you is more learn-ded than me!”

“I didn’t say that at all, Ray.” Nunzio’s voice went all low and patient, like he was talking down an ornery student. I hated when he did that, but at least it wasn’t as bad as Michael’s teacher-mode. All exasperated and pointing things out and trying to make me see the light. “I’m just curious about what you’ve been up to. Michael and I being together doesn’t have to mean that you and me aren’t close anymore.”

“Uh-huh.” He passed the pipe, but I waved it off. “I don’t know what we do. Just stuff. Go out to eat. He makes me watch his entire Netflix queue, I try to teach him how to hold a console controller….”

“I see.”

“He also smokes with me sometimes.”

Nunzio’s brows shot up. “Do you drink together too?”

“Nah. He knows I don’t drink much, and we never go partying or whatever.”

The idea of going out to get wasted with David’s crowd was as desirable as using warming lubricant on my dick—interesting in theory, but a terrible idea in practice. But David pitched the idea a lot, as if I had anything in common with people who swanned around Williamsburg and talked about the number of hops in their beer like they were too good for a Corona.

“You’re better off,” Nunzio said, still watching me a little too closely. “The guy turns into a needy slut after you put a couple of drinks in him.”

“I doubt he’s always like that.”

“It’s true.” The corners of Nunzio’s mouth started to twitch upward. “But maybe that wouldn’t be so bad for you. The kid is a gold medalist at deep throating.”

“Man….”

“What? Just turn off the lights and let him go to town,” Nunzio said, keen on making my life embarrassing and horrible. He popped his tongue in the inside of his cheek and made a pumping motion with his right hand. When I scowled, he dissolved into chuckles. “I’m just saying, you might as well take advantage of the situation. I know he’s willing.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because you’re a piece of ass, and David has a jones for hot Latino dudes.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

I’d intended to say something more forceful and hetero-horrified, but I was more nervous than disgusted by the possibility of David wrapping his lips around my dick. When we’d first met, he’d hit on me for a few weeks before abandoning the I-will-make-you-gay-for-me thing. I had never taken him seriously. Each sassy comment and cute smile had garnered him nothing more than blank stares and a litany of details about just how much I liked pussy. Apparently flirting with me wasn’t worth hearing about the inner workings of a vagina. I didn’t see what the big deal was. If it wasn’t for vagina, his ass wouldn’t be in the world.

“Are you visualizing it
right now
?” Nunzio leaned across the bed and started his lame hand-pumping motion again.

“No, I’m not.” I wondered if he could see through my lies. “Why don’t you traipse your ass downstairs and climb on my brother’s dick again? I saw you down there begging for it. A dude can’t even go to his own kitchen without bearing witness to profane homosexual acts these days. What would God say?”

“He’d be, like, ‘That’s why I gave dudes the p-spot. No worries, Nunzio. I still love you.’”

He cracked up at his own joke while I sat there wondering what the hell a p-spot was. Something I’d be googling later.

“Michael has a perfectly good room he can defile your ass in, man.”

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I started it.”

“What a surprise.”

“But now that you mention it….” Nunzio went serious, sitting up straight. “We were going to talk to you about it in the morning, but I might as well give you a heads-up now.”

“Uh. Okay…?” He studied me, trying to determine whether this heads-up would send me flying off the handle or responding with my usual brand of apathy and sarcasm. “Are you going to talk?”

He rubbed the stubble shadowing his jaw, far too hesitant, given his usual tendency to say whatever the hell he wanted. “We were talking about moving in together. As in, Michael moving into my apartment.”

I stared at him, insolence evaporating. Panicky internal flailing sped my pulse. “But—”

“And he wants to rent the house.”

“Rent the—” I was on my feet so fast, I sent my phone flying across the room. “Where the fuck am I supposed to go?”

Nunzio didn’t get up, but he did fold his hands together in a pleading gesture ingrained from years of attempted religious indoctrination by his Catholic parents. “Don’t freak out. It’s going to be fine. He’s just going to talk to you about it. He isn’t planning to force the idea on you. The house is in both of your names.”

I almost didn’t hear him. I was still stuck on the bit about Michael wanting strangers to live in our mother’s house.

“He can go wherever he wants, but I’m not leaving.”

“Ray—”

“Get out.”

It looked like he wanted to argue, to figure out a way to appease me, but Nunzio knew when to pick his battles. He gave me one last regretful look and left me standing alone in the dark, cluttered room.

Raymond

MY PLAN
had been to slip out of the house undetected to avoid the inevitable conversation with Michael because I knew it would devolve into a screaming match. My brilliant strategy was shot to shit when I slept well into the morning after a busy night of moping and watching porn to cheer up. I could have slept even longer, but the doorbell jolted me out of a weird dream about being lost in a department store. The sound of a familiar voice floating up the stairs chased away the last traces of sleep.

I had no idea why David was in my house. From upstairs, I could hear him talking to Michael by the front door. After a moment of Michael sounding increasingly dismayed, I heard David’s quick footsteps bounding up the stairs. My door burst open—because even upper-class kids from Connecticut didn’t knock—and with a sunny smile, David stepped into my dungeon. Between the blond hair, tanned skin, and tight white-and-blue ensemble, he looked fit for a yacht rather than my bedroom.

I groaned and rolled over, covering my head with a pillow. “Why?”

“Why not?” My door clicked shut, and the bed rocked as David plopped down next to me. “I’m not teaching summer school, so I have nothing better to do than coming to see your charming face.”

“Go away,” I muffled out. “I’m busy.”

“You look super busy.”

“I’m busy willing multiple people to be hit by cars.”

“Am I on the list?”

“No. But you could be.”

He snickered. There was a rustling sound and two thumps that sounded suspiciously like shoes hitting the floor. Then David wriggled under the sheet to cuddle up to me. I tensed. David plastering his body all over mine wasn’t new—the guy was like a heat-seeking missile and seemed to constantly crave physical contact—but I was normally fully clothed for our impromptu cuddle sessions. Now, I had on nothing more than a pair of briefs. Not that he cared. He rubbed his face against my shoulder like a cat.

“Wake up or I’ll do the lamprey thing all day. I don’t have anything else to do.”

“I’m fucking naked, dude.”

“I don’t care. I’ve seen naked men before. Lots of them.”

“Ugh.” I peeked at him from under the pillow. “I need a rape whistle.”

David removed the pillow from my head and shoved it under his own, making himself right at home. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve given up on us ever playing hot-intruder-and-innocent-twink sex games.”

“What the hell?”

He smoothed my long hair back so he could get a full view of my grumpy, sleep-creased expression. “You know—role-playing. You’re the scary but smoldering intruder, I’m the defenseless gay boy, you came for the goods but help yourself to my ass….”

“Why do I have to be the intruder? That’s some racist bullshit.”

David smirked. “I like how you’re more worried about my fantasies being PC than the fact that you bang me in them.”

“I already knew you were a sick bastard considering….”

Bringing up his one-night stand with my brother and Nunzio was just awkward. We both knew it had happened, but we never talked about it, even if I had no idea why it was such a big deal. It wasn’t like I cared what the hell they’d done a year ago while almost blacked-out drunk. As far as I knew, Nunzio was the only one with a lingering problem. But judging by the way David’s mouth tightened, it seemed as though he didn’t like hearing about it either.