Page 34 of If the World Was Ending

“The pool is closed,” Colby reminded him because the sign on the gate said Pool Closed 7p.m to 7a.m.

Hunter waved his hand dismissively. “Bob starts on the Budweiser at four every day. He’s passed out by now. He won’t hear us. Besides, it’s an emergency situation. We’re melting up here.”

Colby hesitated only because Bob knew Colby wasn’t on the lease. So far, Bob seemed to be looking the other way, but if he got pissed off, he could have them re-sign a new lease and jack up the rent. Or he could just kick them out.

Hunter got to his feet and turned to stare down at Colby. He tried not to look at Colby’s bare chest for too long. It was not an easy task. Colby’s chest was way more defined than it should be for a dude who thought the gym was just a place to shower when you lived in your van. His very thick treasure trail, which started at his belly button, also begged for attention. Hunter’s eyes kept sweeping over it.

Gotta be the weed making me fixate, he thought to himself.

“Help me…” Colby whined and held out both arms.

Hunter rolled his eyes but clasped Colby’s outstretched hands and pulled him up. He’d not only accepted Colby’s touchiness lately, he craved it. Colby liked to hug, and Hunter liked to be hugged… now. Colby loved to hold on to people, like Briar or Hunter or his sketchy manager Ford, like they were a port in a storm. Another revelation was that Colby was a way better roommate than Leandra ever was because he happily helped him run lines and tape auditions, paid attention, and had useful suggestions. He was also the reason Hunter’s abs currently ached as they made their way through the small apartment to the front door, and not just because he made Hunter laugh so much.

When Colby found out that Hunter played hockey throughout his childhood in Canada and saw pictures of how muscular and buff Hunter used to be, he told Hunter he needed to start going to the gym and taking it seriously. “You’re a few pounds of muscle away from being the leading man in a superhero movie, dude. You have that quality, you just gotta enhance it.”

He’d squeezed Hunter’s bicep, and Hunter had blushed and shoved him away, laughing. But he also upped his gym days and added more weights to his routine. Now, as they padded barefoot down to the pool in the courtyard, Hunter watched Colby move. He was shirtless, in just a pair of basketball shorts. He wasn’t jacked up with muscles, but he had wide, strong shoulders, developed pecs, and taut but not quite ripped muscles in his stomach. He seemed to come by it naturally, although he did go to the beach on Sundays to play Ultimate Frisbee in a pick-up league. He’d invited Hunter, but his anxiety made a situation full of strangers at the beach chasing each other over a plastic disc feel… uninviting.

They opened the gate to the pool area, and it squeaked, making them both cringe. Colby giggled like they were teenagers sneaking out of the house. Hunter fucking loved how happy he felt with this guy. It was the weirdest way he’d ever met a friend, but it was also his easiest friendship ever. Hunter had never been great at friendships. He had a lot of people who liked him instantly, but not many he felt he could really connect with. With Colby, it had been so quick and so easy, Hunter wasn’t even sure how it happened.

He supposed a lot had to do with how relaxed Colby was. He was never ruffled. Never angry. If he had any emotion that wasn’t pleasant, Hunter guessed it was sadness. There was a ripple of that sometimes in his features, but it never lingered. Also, Hunter was forever grateful to Colby for introducing him to edibles, which actually helped his anxiety at night, so he could sleep. He was still a high-strung squirrel during the day, but he slept well now. And edibles were way cheaper than his prescription ADHD medication.

“Did Marge hear anything about your audition tape yet?” Colby asked as they walked around the pool deck, and Hunter realized they forgot towels.

“Margo said we should hear tomorrow. She submitted me.” Hunter wasn’t excited. Margo had gotten him an audition for that script Colby’s fan boy Daxton had given him, Platonic Planet. Margo hadn’t been convinced it was a great fit because it was an independent film, no real big money behind it, not network attached yet, and it filmed in Canada. But Hunter insisted she try to get him an audition, so she did. Hunter agreed with Margo, deep down, but he wanted to please Colby, so he sent in the audition tape. He’d take it if he got it, of course, but Hunter really wasn’t sure it would do much for his career in the long run.

“Marge needs to come through on this, or you cut her loose,” Colby announced as he dipped a toe in the water. “How did we forget suits?” They were both in shorts and nothing else.

Hunter looked at his cargo shorts and then at Colby’s basketball shorts and laughed, covering his mouth to stifle the sound. Then he shrugged. “Fuck it.”

Hunter undid his shorts and pushed them down, leaving him in just his boxer briefs, which were tight and a pale gray and black striped pattern. Colby was watching him intently. Or at least it felt that way, and Hunter suddenly got… even warmer. “What?”

“I… I’m not wearing underwear,” Colby confessed.

Hunter wanted to blush at that for some stupid reason, but instead he pointed at Colby’s shorts. “So, swim in those.”

He walked to the stairs. Normally, he jumped straight into the deep end, but he didn’t want to make splashing sounds. So he moved slowly, letting the cool water swallow him inch by inch, and tried not to think of Colby watching him. Truth was, now that he was loose and happy thanks to the weed, he could admit the truth to himself. A thought he’d been running from but was frequently bouncing around his brain. He was attracted to Colby. Maybe? It was a distinct possibility.

The fact didn’t scare Hunter, and it wasn’t some new revelation for him to consider a man attractive. It did, however, make him worried. Nervous. Uncomfortable. He was eleven when he first told his mom, absently, that a man was pretty. It was Justin Timberlake. His mom looked startled, but she didn’t reprimand him. She just nodded, her lips pressed tightly together. Still, Hunter got the immediate idea he’d done something wrong. So he didn’t say it again because the idea of being difficult, or not normal, made Hunter’s skin itch and his heart race.

But those thoughts never actually stopped, he just didn’t speak of them. In high school, he’d watch reruns of Gossip Girl and jerked off to the Chase Crawford character, not the Blake Lively one. And he had once, at a cottage party back home in twelfth grade, gotten lost in the woods with his friend Gavin and they’d kinda fucked around. Just touched each other’s dicks on top of their pants and said some heated shit like “rub it harder” and “make me come.”

They never talked about it after, or did anything together again, so Hunter sometimes wondered if it had been a drunken teenage fever dream and not real life. Nothing like that had happened again, with anyone. He’d never had an opportunity to try it again with a guy, but he wasn’t actively avoiding it. But he’d watched shows like “Game of Thrones” for Khaleesi, not Jon Snow, so… whatever.

“You know you joked upstairs that I was celibate, but you haven’t brought home one girl.” Hunter didn’t know why he let that slip out of his mouth. When he was high, his thoughts were coated in Vaseline and became slippery little fuckers he couldn’t contain. “So, you’re not dating either?”

When Hunter was in the pool, submerged up to his nipples, he turned and watched Colby walk into the pool to join him. Colby kept his eyes on the water's surface, watching his fingers as they skimmed across it, disrupting its glassy appearance. Hunter walked backward toward the deep end, the water rising over his shoulders before he stopped. Colby finally looked up. He’s more shadowed than Hunter because there was a large palm tree in that corner of the courtyard, just past the pool, and it was blocking out any moonlight. “I haven’t really dated a girl.”

“Recently?”

“Ever.”

Hunter blinks and lets his arms float out beside him, taking one more step back so the water rose to his sharp chin and only his toes were on the bottom of the pool. “Like ever, ever?”

“I mean, I’ve fucked around.” Colby shrugged, his eyes moving to scan something behind Hunter.

“You’ve had sex? With a woman?” Hunter immediately regretted being blunt. It wasn’t at all like him. He was the guy who could talk around an issue until everyone was so exhausted that no one wanted to talk about the issue. At least that’s what Leandra had always complained about. It was his constant fear of making waves or causing friction. Hunter hated friction. “Sorry.”

“Yeah dude, I’ve had sex.” Colby kind of chuckled, and then he emerged from the shadow, the moonlight glinting off the paler sun-kissed strands of his wavy hair as he walked toward Hunter and the deep end. His eyes shifted to the water’s surface again. “Is the woman part important to you?”