Efrain and Cory Ch. 29

"You know," JJ said, ignoring Paul's bitch/pancake selfie fest. "I'm just gunna say this: y'all listen to some weird shit."

I nodded in agreement.

While I'd enjoyed some of the songs Cory'd put in that playlist (like a metal cover of "Let it go" that actually made the damn song palatable), some of them had me scratching my head. Cory was a bit of a sponge with music, absorbing sounds from everything he encountered. He had music his brothers listened to in their teens, and music he danced to with his friends. Even some of the EDM and hip hop that Efrain favored, and the indie(ish) music that Preston liked. My music ended up in there somehow, as well as Gio's.

But, like a sponge, some of his music stank.

"I still wasn't convinced that y'all swing that way," Paul said over Yelle's Ba$$in, a French electropop tune about shaking one's ass to get a guy's attention. "I mean, none'y'all have limp wrists or talk with a lisp—"

"I did lisp for the first few weeks I had braces," Cory laughed.

"And there was that one time I fell off my skateboard and sprained my wrist," I said.

"You don't walk funny, either..." Paul continued.

"I guess he's never seen Cory after Wolfie's had his way with him," Preston whispered to me.

"...But, damn, Cory," Paul said, "your music is gay as fuck."

"My nuts are about shrivel up and fall off just listening to it," Denholm said.

"Hey, just because your masculinity is weak enough to be threatened by something as silly as music," Cory said, "doesn't mean mine is, too."

Preston giggled.

"You should see some of the Japanese bands he listens to," Efrain said. "It's like someone put an entire boy band in goth drag and gave them instruments."

"To be fair," I said, "most of them know how to use those instruments."

"But, still," Efrain said. "Some of those guys could pass for women. It's...unsettling."

"What the..." JJ suddenly said. He pointed to Efrain's screen, where the playlist switched to the next song, providing the straight football bros with a new distraction. It was one of those plaintive slow songs about the loneliness of being with a lover who wants more than the other can give. But, that was hardly the interesting part. The singer, dressed in simple flesh-toned bra and panties, sang in her airy whistle-high voice, all while contorted in the strangest poses in some kind of elaborate Japanese rope bondage that utilized her own hair.

"Is she...?" Denholm said in confusion.

"I found her while looking for stuff from Pendulum," Cory said. "Other than the name, it was odd to find trip hop mixed in with drum and bass, but she's awesome."

"And her music videos are weird as fuck," Preston added. "There's one where it's just some big black guy shoving his fingers in her mouth." Efrain smirked.

"Speaking of her mouth," Paul remarked. "Damn, those are some DSLs." JJ and Denholm grunted in agreement.

And then, the three of them sat, pancake in one hand and beer in the other, both mostly forgotten, transfixed by a chick in her underwear suspended in a half-split by hair shibari.

~*~*~*~

The way Lacey and her boyfriend acted put me in mind of a skittish animal being coaxed into an unfamiliar and frightening situation.

It didn't not help matters that my best friend's boyfriend had demanded that they either be here on time or starve.

I don't give a fuck if he gets a speeding ticket—I am not reheating this roast. And, why the fuck does he have a fuckin' sports car if he doesn't have the balls to speed? Tell him to man the fuck up and get here.

Of course, Efrain had been loud enough to be heard over the phone. And, of course, Clint's "fuckin' sports car" was new enough that they had Bluetooth calls enabled. So, of course, Efrain's message went directly to the intended recipient.

Lacey and Clint were fifteen minutes late, but still considerably early by party standards. They did manage to arrive just as Efrain and Cory were putting the last dishes into the serving dishes that Consumer Whore Claire had so graciously donated to chez Indie, and had plenty of time to settle into the group. Laurel sent me to grab drinks for them, which was probably the only reason I'd been let back into the kitchen after Efrain had kicked Indie and me out of it (okay, so his pissy mood may have had more to do with Indie trolling him with kitten vs. puppy videos, and me being, well, me). Clint entered the house willingly enough, but seemed to have issues with moving farther that the foyer.

Chef Boyardiva yelling at him to grow a pair may not have helped matters.

Or that he'd very helpfully cued up "Man Up" from The Book of Mormon in time for their entry.

"Wait," Indie said, "is that Olaf singing about 'manning up all over himself'?"

"Not helping," Laurel said.

"Come on, Clint," Lacey said in her creaky vocal fry and patted the seat next to her. "Everyone's in the living room."

"Come in," Mike said. "It not like we're going to bite."

"Don't know about that, man," Clint said. "Last time I was here, the blond one threw the Puerto Rican one against the wall and started dry humping him."

Cory's outrage was audible even over his friends' laughter. "I did not!"

"You so did," Meggie giggled from the couch. "Almost knocked poor Wolfie out."

"Y'all might wanna turn the volume up," Lacey mimicked, her fry mixing with his Texas drawl. "I get pretty loud." Laurel and Meggie had joined her mid-mimic, then all three fell into mad giggles. Poor Cory turned red.

"And this guy," Indie, seated in the recliner we'd been sharing, pointed at Clint, "looked like he'd just witnessed all the world's most unspeakable atrocities rolled into one horrible moment."

"Dude, he lives in a frat house," Meggie's boyfriend, Drew, said. "I'm sure he's seen worse than two guys making out."

"Bro, not cool," Clint groused.

He was still baulking by the time I returned, so I waved the beer past his nose and whistled. "Come on, boy, you can do it," I said, as if talking to a potty training puppy and not some rich kid frat bro. He glowered at me. "What? Is it the whole entering-a-pit-of-gay-vipers thing? You know, they're more afraid of you than you are of them." I walked over to hand Lacey a glass of wine. "Besides, it's not like you're outnumbered. The other breeders will keep you safe." I pointed at the seat next to her. "Now, sit."

Clint begrudgingly took a seat, and I handed him the beer, but it seemed the puppy play wasn't over as Lacey started ruffling his hair.

"Who's a good boy?" she cooed. "You're a good boy!"

"I like her," I told Indie as I settled in the chair with him.

"You would," he sighed.

"So, when did it happen?" Berta asked.

"When did what happen?" Lacey said.

"Kitten mauling Wolfie in front of a live audience," Luz said, who'd made herself comfortable in Paul Baker's lap as soon as she'd walked in. Bitch was bold. Just sat down and said, "A little birdie told me you're the wingman." She'd then demanded that he distract her so her friend could get laid, a situation that Paul seemed more than happy to comply with.

I'd called her out on being a slut, and she was all like, "Says the guy riding the Asswrecker." I had decided then that if I suddenly turned straight, I'd marry that damn skank. Of course, when I told her that, she said that if she suddenly turned desperate, she'd marry me, too.

Seriously. Fucking marriage material right there.

"Sometime in October," Mike answered.

"Oh yeah, that night we got Cory drunk," JJ said.

"We were tryin' to get him thoroughly shit-faced," Paul said. "But, 'Rain had to ruin our fun and take him home."

"You almost had them throwing down in Lith-fuck-Mitch's hallway."

"Cory can be a handful when he's drunk," I said.

"Like you're any better," Berta said.

"Remember when he and Preston decided to hook Marina up with Delia Reid?" Luz laughed.

"Oh my God," Berta laughed. "That."

"Do I want to know?" JJ asked.

"From what I hear," Gio said, "Cory started a four-way make out for 'research purposes'."

"When the rest of GSA found out about that, some of them insisted they get a smooch in on him, too," I said. "I think he kissed half the people at that party before we had to leave." I paused. "Come to think of it, he was drunk for that, too."

"You called him LipService for days," Gio said.

"Our boy does seem to lose all sense of shame when he's drunk," Berta said.

"That...is not entirely inaccurate," Efrain said, grinning as he and Cory walked in.

"That is completely inaccurate!" Cory argued. Efrain ducked the pot holder Cory tossed at his head and patted his cheek before calling us to dinner.

Cory's eyes narrowed at his retreating boyfriend's back.

"You could cut him off until he behaves," Lacey suggested to him as we made up our plates. "Do it to Clint all the time."

"Only when she can't think of a decent comeback," Laurel whispered to me.

"I could," Cory said.

"You could," Efrain said. "But, a couple beers on an empty stomach, and I'd have to pry you off with a crowbar."

I cut in over Cory's retort. "As entertaining as this little show is, I understand Drew has something else planned."

"Oh, yes, gimme a moment." Drew set aside his plate and began connecting his laptop to the TV.

"What is it?" Laurel asked.

"He's been kinda secretive about it," Meggie said. "Anytime I asked, he'd just say you'll see and start giggling."

Indie grinned, seemed he was in on the secret, too. "Twilight." Everyone turned to him in surprise. "He's got the entire Twilight saga."

"You can't be serious," Paul said.

"Completely serious," JJ said—apparently the three of them had colluded on this little venture.

"So, guys, are you 'Team Edward' or 'Team Jacob'?" Drew chuckled.

"I dunno, man," Indie said.

"Haven't quite decided who I'm rooting for, either," JJ added.

"I know, right? Such a hard choice," Drew said.

"I think it's a little like chicks who cheer for their boyfriend's favorite teams because they don't know shit about sports," JJ mused.

"Good point," Indie said and turned to me. "Hey, Preston, are we 'Team Edward' or 'Team Jacob'?"

"'Team Real Man'," I said. The other guys chuckled, more at the sounds of female outrage than the comment itself.

"This better not be one of those parodies," Lacey said.

"Not at all," Indie answered as Drew pulled some DVDs out of his bag. He'd brought all five movies, and flashed the discs at us, just to prove that he hadn't switch out the DVDs as a prank.

Gio's eyebrow climbed up his forehead. "You're really going to make us watch Twilight?"

Drew, Indie, and JJ smiled, the only people with penises in the whole room who were excited about watching the chosen movie, and I got a strange feeling about the whole thing. Indie and Drew fiddled with the remotes and HDMI cables until his desktop appeared on the screen.

"Oh my God," Meggie groaned. "I should have known."

"What?" Drew said, all innocence-made-flesh.

She pointed at an open window on the screen.

"What the hell is Rifftrax?" I said.

"You'll find out soon enough," Indie told me.

It took a little bit to get the timing on the DVD and the Rifftrax track just right. And when he did...

"This is ruining the movie," Lacey whined after less than five minutes. The movie commentary was loud enough that you could just barely hear the dialogue over (which by itself had vastly improved the quality of the film). She huffed about turning the damn thing off, but she had been out-voted by every guy in the room, and even some of the girls got into the fun.

"That look is from the 'guy-you-alert-the-flight-attendant-about' collection," Cory laughed.

Lacey continued to complain until she finally got into it enough to propose the Line game. Anytime the actors stared at each other for no apparent reason and one of the Rifftrax guys said "line", we'd take a shot. This soon expanded to include other repeated phrases, like "Whoa! Two dogs doing it!" and "I'm Harpo". We did double shots whenever they said "L-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-ladies". I wasn't pleased that Efrain and Indie made Cory and me take sips of our drinks instead of shots, but we were still decently buzzed by the middle of the second movie.

I was glad, however, for the liquid courage that helped Efrain and Cory get comfortable. They'd been a little stiff when their teammates showed up, and seemed a little awkward just sitting next to each other on their side of the couch. But, at some point after we'd eaten dinner and had demolished Laurel's cupcakes, Cory hugged his knees up to his chest, and a little while after that, Efrain hooked his arm around said legs, which gradually fell over into his lap. By the time Drew started up New Moon, Cory had curled himself around Efrain with his chin resting on his shoulder, and Efrain had his fingers under Cory's pants leg idly stroking his ankles. When he thought no one was looking, Cory kissed Efrain's shoulder, and Efrain returned the favor against Cory's temple.

Of course, none of this went unnoticed, least of all by their teammates. I caught Denholm discretely tapping Paul's shoulder and jerking his head over at Wolfie and Kitten. Paul's eyebrows lifted at the sight, but then he got JJ's attention. A discreet picture was shot, most likely to be distributed to the rest of their little group.

"I still don't see why chicks like this so much," Gio said, as the credits rolled. "Bella and Edward are boring as fuck."

"Can't believe they dated," Laurel said, slight note of disgust in her voice.

"He could do so much better," Lacey responded. She was killing me with that vocal fry.

"He's now married to that one chick," I said. "DSL hairbondage, or whatever her name is." Paul giggled when he realized who I was talking about.

"FKA twigs," Cory corrected.

"FKA whogivesafuck," I said. Their football bros got who I'd meant. Besides, I think we all liked my version much better.

"Please tell me you have more of them," Denholm said to Drew. I think a few had been planning to eat then head out, but became too captivated by the movie marathon to leave. Cheers went up when Drew pulled out three more DVDs in answer.

"We cool for one more?" He directed the question to the room, but waited for Indie's affirmative to continue, it being his living room and all.

I caught Luz whispering in Paul's ear before he spoke up. "I think I'm going to call it a night," he said, and then oh-so-casually added, "Berta, would you be cool giving JJ a ride home?" As soon as she nodded, Paul and Luz were off the couch and out the door.

"Man," I said. "That wasn't obvious at all."

"I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that Cory set them up," JJ mused.

"That was a set-up?" Denholm said.

"Yup, he called me up the other night and said 'Tell Paul you need a wingman, and make sure he drives.'"

"Luz said that if I was going to score booty for Marina and Berta, I needed to get her laid, too," Cory stated. The innocent shrug and matter-of-fact tone simply highlighted that this hadn't been a simple favor for a gal pal.

"Oh my god, Cory." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What?"

"You shady, shady bitch."

"She gave me a shopping list, which had Paul, Mitch, and Adrian right up at the top," Cory protested. "I just happened to pick Paul."

"You used that poor, misguided ho-bag to take out your rival!"

"I did no such thing!"

"That is disgustingly adorable," Denholm muttered.

"Holy fuck," Efrain laughed. "Did 'Butthurt Baker' really pose that much of a threat?"

"I wonder if they're still doing the 'line' bit in this one," Cory said, attempting to change the subject rather than try maintaining his innocence. Efrain reached over and affectionately mussed his hair. "What?"

God, Efrain's pancakes were good, but they weren't that good.

His roast, on the other hand. I'd shank a man for that roast.

Of course, I knew to keep this on the down-low. Who knows what guy Cory would hook me up with to get my ass out of the way if he thought I was a threat.

~*~*~*~

Efrain's fingers brushed along my jaw, back to thread into my hair. The small lamp on the nightstand provided enough ambient light to make his hazel eyes gleam.

He pulled me to him, to his lips, tongue sweeping my bottom lip, sliding into my mouth. I melted into his body, my hands at his hips, and gave into the urge to rub myself all over him. The length of his gorgeous cock strained against his black boxer briefs. I wasn't able to see it, but I could still feel it press into my own straining member. The jury was still out on whether the two layers of cotton between us heightened my arousal, or merely impeded my satisfaction.

"You really are like a cat sometimes." He caught my bottom lip between his teeth and gave it a delicious tug. I nearly purred when he pulled my head to the side and trailed little licks and nips along my neck. He hadn't bothered to shave at all this week, and the sensation of stubble rubbing on my skin was a reminder of his attentions. A bite landed at just the right spot along the juncture between my neck and shoulder, sending shivers up and down my spine. My knees buckled, and I figured I'd fare better on them.

I slid down his body, working my tongue over any bit he'd let me at. Along the collarbone, between just barely furred pecs, around the nipples, over his ripped lats—down I went, hooking my fingers over his waistband and taking his boxer briefs with me. His dick snapped back up and nearly slapped his stomach once freed. His ripped as fuck abs, obscenely defined Adonis belt, and tidy little happy trail all pointed to that one magical spot, but I took my time getting there. He growled impatiently, flexing his fingers in my hair and trying to move my head where he wanted it, but I was still stronger than him and able to proceed how I wanted.

If he was going to call me gatito, I might as well give him a little kitty tongue bath.

I rubbed my cheek against his thigh, watching his dick twitch practically in time with the background music. I looked up long enough to make sure he was watching before I stuck out the tip of my tongue and stole a little taste of his balls. Efrain growled my name, a note of warning in his voice. As much as he liked to tease, he hated to be teased. Any more of my nonsense and I was going to get it later.

So, I lapped at his nuts a few more times, and got a shuddering breath on each pass.

I really wanted to get it later.

Efrain tightened his grip and pulled my head back. He smiled. Granted, it was that I'm making a list sort of smile, but a smile nonetheless. With our eyes locked, I licked up the underside of his cock, from the root up, and wrapped my lips around his head. "Fuck," he moaned while my tongue ran circles around his cock. The corners of my mouth pulled up in the closest approximation of a smile I could get at while still working my lips and tongue further along his shaft.

"Goddamn, I love watching you suck my dick."

He had loosened his fingers in my hair, and simply palmed the back of my head. His eyes darkened, panting breaths parted his lips, as his hips rocked his dick closer to the back of my throat with each thrust. Pre-cum mixed with the taste of his skin, and I moaned. I wrapped my fingers around his base, but he pulled back before I could milk out another drop.

"I was having fun with that," I protested.

"You still have to pay for the fun you had earlier," he said, pulling me to my feet and backing me toward our bed. "I fully intend to take it out on your ass."