Plucking Green - 2. Chapter 2

The next morning consisted of helping his mom, Rene, move furniture.

“What are we doing with this? Mom?” Roman asked while sliding his parents’ heavy sofa across their living room. His dad was at work with Jeff until four. It was eight thirty in the morning and Roman’s eyes were still puffy with sleep.

“Getting it out of here. Austin’s been sleeping here and his feet-”

“Oh, ew, I get it.”

Austin was Roman’s older brother by a decade and a half. Married and divorced, engaged to a woman with a kid and broken up, unknowingly dated a married anorexic woman; he hasn’t had the best luck with women. He wanted to love, but he wasn’t a good lover. He also had very stinky feet.

“Are you buying a new couch?” Roman asked his mom. The woman helped him flip the couch so that they could get it out the front door.

“No, we’re gonna move the black one against- I’ll just show you.”

Roman laughed. “Okay.” He pushed the couch out the front door and down the porch steps, where he let it fall onto the grass. Then he went back inside to his mother. “Why’s Austin staying here?”

Rene looked at him, her graying black hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. She shook her head, her 4’8 body looking exceptionally well for her age. “Because he moved out.”

“Oh. Where’s he gonna stay?”

“I don’t fucking know.” His mom sounded annoyed, so Austin was probably being negative about this whole situation. He always looked at the downside. Roman rose his eyebrows.

“Well, Jeff’s got a spare room. If Austin could stand him,” he offered, smirking at his mom. They both knew that Austin hated Jeff’s guts. His mom groaned, beyond tired of the trouble. Then she grabbed the black sofa and Roman grabbed the other side, so that they could start moving it.

“Did you find out how much Jeff’s paying you?” she asked. Roman nodded as they moved the lighter couch with ease.

“Fifty for the painting, thirty for the back yard, twenty for the front, that means...” He brought a hand up from the sofa to count his fingers, and then he stated, “A hundred.” His mom had already counted it in her head, but Roman had a tendency to count small numbers with his fingers. The larger ones, he could do in his head with ease. His parents always thought that he may be autistic, from the way he would hit his head against the walls or floors when he was a toddler, but they never took him for any tests. He stopped hitting his head before preschool and “all was fine”. Roman knew that there was something wrong with him mentally, be it autism or some type of personalization disorder. He didn’t take himself for any tests, either, though, because he was afraid of the idea that they might find out other things about him. He had an absolute fear of being hypnotized.

“When’s he paying you?” his mom asked. Roman went back to moving the sofa.

“Tonight, after I get done mowing the front yard.”

“You still have paint on you.”

Roman sighed. “Yeah, I know. I was too tired to take a shower, and I don’t want to take one just to get all sweaty and shit mowing and have to take another one after.”

His mom smiled at his excuse and they pushed the sofa where she wanted it to go. Then they both stepped back to see if it was even and where she wanted. It was.

“Hey, I have some gift cards for Panera Bread. I looked it up, they don’t expire,” his mom said and looked at him. Roman gave a light shrug.

“...Alright, sure. Sweet.” He had always wanted to go, just because it had Bread in the name. He loved bread. The smell of it, the crunch of it, the taste of it. When he went anorexic in high school, he ate bread when he was starved enough. It was probably what kept him alive and healthy.

They took the drive-thru with Roman’s dad’s truck, because he wasn’t really dressed to go inside; he was wearing some torn pajama pants that he had stitched twice but were persistent and tore once again, a giant gash down his right thigh that showed his pale skin underneath, and his hairy leg. His mom was okay with not going in, but she had originally wanted to. She liked sitting in shops and spending time with Roman, especially when they ate KFC bowls. That was their comfort food. When she and Roman’s dad broke up during his teen years in their home town, she would take him to KFC’s and they would eat peacefully. But then she and his father got back together again, because they had been together since they were sixteen. They were forty nine, now.

Roman ordered a Turkey BLT with avocado, because he really just wanted the avocado, and his mom ordered the same, because she wasn’t sure if there was anything that she would want or like.

The sandwich was poor, said his mom’s face. But her words said, “It could use some mayonnaise.” Roman nodded, because he was also disappointed at the lack of flavor.

“Or some Dijon mustard,” he said. His mom looked at him with wide eyes and a mouth of food. She nodded heavily. Roman’s phone went off, a familiar ping, and he pulled his phone out of his pajama pants’ pocket. It was Tinder. With a message from a college boy he had been with earlier in the month.

“Hey” it read. And then there was another message. “dtf?”

“What’s that?” Roman’s mom asked. He turned his phone away from her slightly, typing a response.

“Eh, it’s Elaine.” Elaine was his childhood friend. She still lived near his home town, which was hours away. He was lying, though, because she was at work right now, at the jail. She had gotten her first tase two days ago and sent Roman a video of it, which was cringing at Elaine’s screaming of “Please stop, please stop”, until she and the police officers started laughing once it was over, and then it made the video feel funny somehow.

“maybe six?” Roman sent in reply. His mother started driving them back to the house, because she had some more work that needed to be done but was alas, too small.

“k”.

Roman hated fucking college kids because it was infuriating that they could go off to school and better their lives when he couldn’t. And they always had beer on their breath when they came over. Two of them had tried smoking weed in his place and he had to kick them out. The annoying part of the actual act of sex with them was that they wanted to fuck like they were in a porno, and that meant Roman deepthroating them and being fucked in every single position, no matter how uncomfortable. He hated deepthroating just as much as he hated 69ing. It was annoying, being forced on some spoiled brat’s cock until he puked.

This kid in particular wasn’t that bad. The thing that bugged Roman was his incessant need type everything in rough teen slang.

Since he was already on Tinder, Roman decided to start swiping on some faces. There were sketchy looking guys, cute college boys, rippling abs that probably didn’t belong to the owner of the account, pervert looking old men, and then some hot guys from the army or in their thirties and forties. Roman had an undying attraction to older men, specifically Mads Mikkelsen. His age range on the app was from nineteen to fifty six. He didn’t like younger men, and he was already dating an eighteen year old, anyway. He had yet to fuck anyone above thirty years old, because he could tell if the guy was a pervert, or a freak, or a pedophile. He had still sexted them, though, and sent nudes back and forth.

He liked seeing pictures of their cocks, thick and erect, and resting in a bed of pubic hair. He thought it was hot when he saw peppered hair, because it showed the man’s age. He also liked seeing their hairy chests, muscular with dark or light hair. He really wanted to fuck one of them, but a good majority were into anal fisting, and he did not want his ass torn up. Seriously, what was wrong with men today?

When Roman and his mom parked at the house, he sat on the black sofa in the living room to wait for her to organize what stuff she wanted moved and to where. While he sat, he decided to respond to some more messages, by other men.

Some were just casual talk; hoping to be friends and become more. Others were dirty talk that he wasn’t particularly into. And the others were asking for sex or nudes. He didn’t want to sext in his mom’s house, despite having done it in his teen years, and just settled for making dates.

“You could come to my place” said a twenty two year old named Max. Roman replied,

“You’d have to pick me up. I’m not into Uber”.

“How about I come there”.

“Sure, but I’m busy tonight”.

“alright, tomorrow ;)”.

“Sure”.

“Hey Roman,” Rene called from the kitchen, her voice becoming louder as she made her way to the young man. Roman locked his phone and put it up to look at her. “Tom paid them today, right,” she said. Tom was Roman’s father Leon and Jeff’s boss. Also Roman’s uncle; he was married to Leon’s sister, Natalie, which is why that part of the family is rich. Tom’s family is rich.

“Right,” Roman said, turning on the sofa to put his leg on it and get more comfortable for his mom’s juicy gossip.

“Tom only gave Jeff two hundred dollars.”

Roman knit his eyebrows together at his mother. “Why?” There was a ping from his phone, followed by another, but he wasn’t interested in them. Rene smiled.

“Because he’s been taking drawls before getting paid, so Tom took the difference out of his paycheck.”

“Jeff drawled out seven hundred?”

“Yep. Dad said he swore he could hear him crying. He still owes a thousand on that car from Miranda.” Miranda, Roman’s cousin who sold Jeff the car. She was Natalie’s daughter from a previous marriage, but she was still the family jewel. Roman shook his head.

“Wow. That fucking sucks.”

Rene laughed and turned around, going back off into the kitchen. Roman sat back in the sofa. That did suck. Jeff and his dad got paid every two weeks. He’d have to make two hundred bucks last for two weeks. Damn.

It was best assumed that he dabbled in the selling of drugs. He always had money somehow, so he always helped Rene and Leon out if they were ever in a bind. He also always offered Roman drinks and bought cigarettes all of the time, so he had to have been doing something illegal to have some spare money around.

“So what, did they come over for lunch or something?” Roman called to his mom. She called back, “Yeah. Come in here and finish your dad’s orange drink, he didn’t drink any of it.” He was tired of his dad. He was always so wasteful. Getting up, Roman kicked off his shoes and walked to the kitchen. On the cluttered dining table, a victim of his mom’s hoarding that she was getting better with, there was a cup of orange liquid beside two plates of unfinished lunch. There were still chips on one plate, so it was best assumed that that one was Leon’s, because he had lost all but four of his teeth to an accident where a chain busted his teeth out, and the rotting effects of long term meth abuse.

Roman picked up the drink and drank from it, and his mouth was hit by bubbly citrus. He looked at his mom, who had gotten sidetracked and started washing dishes.

“Mom, I thought this was like, that powder mix- I don’t want any soda.”

Rene looked at her son and pointed at the counter.

“Oh, Dad’s drink is on the counter- that’s Jeff’s.”

Roman started wiping his mouth at the sudden words and his mom started laughing at him.

“Did you drink it?”

“Tch, yeah!” Roman sputtered, putting the cup down. His mom just laughed harder and turned her attention back to the sink. “That was his second cup- they had to leave before he could finish it,” she said to him. He rolled his eyes at her snickering. Then he looked back at the cup.

He wasn’t mortified at drinking after Jeff. He was just caught by surprise when his mom told him, a natural response. He would never drink after his dad and his mom knew it. It was just gross. He didn’t know how his mom could even kiss him, let alone have sex with him. Jeff had perfect teeth, though, that were straight and white. He took good care of himself, the best he could working six days a week in the summer heat. Roman wanted to take another, experimental drink of the cup, but he didn’t want to be seen by his mom, so he left the drink on the table and left back to the living room.

“Is Austin at work?” he called to his mom, rubbing his neck as his face grew warm thinking about drinking after Jeff.

“I don’t know, I think he’s moving things into his storage unit. I think he wants you to help him!” his mom called. He groaned.

“He’s so fucking negative. And his roommate’s weird, he looks like Prince Harry.”

“Well, Dad won’t help him, and he’s saying he needs to move out today.”

Roman spun on his socked heel to peek into the kitchen at his mother. “Mom, I have to mow at Jeff’s today.” His mom looked at him from the steaming sink.

“What time does he want you over?”

Roman shrugged. “He said he’d pick me up, but probably late. And… I have plans.”

Rene gave him a knowing, annoyed look. There was no doubt in Roman’s mind that anyone’s mother hated the image of her son fucking another man. She tolerated it, though. “Your brother’s a little more important than that.”

Roman groaned and dropped his head back, closing his eyes. His mom watched him have his fit for a moment before turning back to the dishes. “Call Austin and see if he’ll pick you up.”

“Fuck, Mom.”

“What’d you say?” Rene looked at Roman again, but he had already slipped out of the room to avoid her daggers. He walked through the living room to go outside and stand on the porch. It was hotter than hell outside, but the neighbors had nice lawns and bloomed flowers; unlike the apartment complex, which was dead. He called his brother’s cell phone and leaned against one of the porch’s columns.

“Hello?” Austin sounded into the phone. Roman pouted at the fact that his brother actually answered.

“Hey, Mom wants me to see if you need any help moving. Furniture.”

“Wha-t? I already told her-” Roman moved the phone from his ear. He didn’t want to hear his brother rant. Austin ranting made him mad, and Austin mad made everyone else mad, and Austin and everyone else mad made Austin blow up and break things. Last time, he called Rene a whore and almost broke his hand from beating up his truck. Roman just wanted to kill him for calling their mom a whore. There were two times that she had cheated on their father. Once with Leon’s old friend years ago, to whom she had fallen madly in love with, and the other with an old man in their home town named Chuck, who had gotten her drunk and taken advantage of her. Leon walking in on Chuck raping Rene should have made him kill the man, but he instead got angry that she had gone there in the first place. Hence, another reason why Roman hated his dad.

Roman put the phone back to his ear when he could hear the ranting was over. “Yeah, I know,” he pretended to know what Austin had ranted about. “Do you need help, though? I’m free until six,” he said. Six, when the college kid would come over.

“Yeah, if you want to. I just gotta move my kitchen stuff and a love seat. They’re both really fucking heavy.”

“Okay. I’m at Mom and Dad’s, if you wanna pick me up.”

“Okay. I’m at Circle K getting some gas, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Roman hung up the phone and went back inside the nicely air conditioned house. His mom was standing beside the TV, turning on her phone that was on the charger. It was always dead. She claimed it was so Leon wouldn’t be able to call her. Roman thought it was relentlessly stupid, because his dad always had the idea that Rene was cheating on him, so he would pick fights with her on why she wasn’t answering. Leon did his own deal of bad things, though. Every one of his phones had a history of sexting and porn, even though he was balding and missing teeth. Rene really didn’t do that sort of stuff.

“Did you get a hold of him?” she asked her son. He nodded, annoyed.

“Said he’d come pick me up.”

“Oh it’s not that bad, calm down,” Rene rolled her eyes. Roman gave her a look. Then he unlocked his phone to get on it again. He just remembered his conversation last night with Andy, but he was at school now. Maybe he’ll forget, he thought.

He ended up watching fifteen minutes of Columbiana with his mom, a movie she had grown obsessed with because of how strong and independent the female lead was in it. Once the fifteen minutes was up, Austin came knocking on the door. Roman told his mom goodbye and left outside with the older man.

“Hey brother, long time no see,” Roman hugged his brother. Austin was aggressive and mean, and obsessed with uncovering the truths behind the Illuminati, and had showed Roman a video of a woman bashing her face into a computer screen until she died, but he still loved him. He was his baby brother, anyway. He had to forgive him. Austin was fifteen years older than Roman, so the nineteen year old wasn’t really allowed to tell his brother his discomfort. He was just supposed to say, “Thanks, love you”.

Austin hugged Roman in return, his arms stained in motor oil from working in mechanics for so long. “Hey, little brother.” He ended the hug after a second, prompting Roman to let go and put his hands in his pockets. “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay- I want to,” Roman said, his voice pitched in a lie. Austin didn’t really care and walked off to his black ford. Roman reluctantly followed. Hopping in and buckling his seat belt, he looked at his brother as the man buckled his own. Austin had a history with the law, so he did everything to avoid being pulled over. Roman knew to put his belt on ahead of time, to avoid getting yelled at. Their parents and Jeff didn’t use seat belts. Every time a cop drove by Leon and Rene, they pulled their seat belts over the shoulders, letting them go again once the cop was passed.

“Is your roommate home?” Roman asked. Austin started driving.

“Yeah, and he hasn’t packed, either. I’ve been telling him all week to start packing and he just sat on his ass instead. He didn’t do anything until he saw me moving my shit out this morning, and then he said “Oh, should I start packing?”. Fuck yeah, you should! Fucking idiot, man! He just sits on his ass and drinks pop all day!”

“...Does he have a job?” Roman actually didn’t know much about the roommate. Just that he was lazy and looked like Prince Harry. Prince Harry was hot, but it was weird to see his “twin” doing nothing but sitting on his ass all day. Austin had sent Roman a video a while back of the roommate sleeping in a recliner in the living room. There were burning matches between each of his fingers, and he didn’t wake up until he got burned, when he waved his hand around really fast and looked at the camera that Austin used to record him.

“Yeah, he works at the old shop I used to.”

Roman nodded. He didn’t know where that was, but he’d pretend.

It was a quiet drive to Austin’s $800 a month trailer home. Roman and his parents had tried talking Austin out of staying there, but he was adamant on living in a somewhat luxurious place. And then the rent got to be too much, so he took in a few roommates from craigslist, but those just put him into more debt when they robbed him. His new roommate was a lazy shit whose dad lived in the trailer park too, but had kicked him out.

Roman got out of the truck and looked at his older brother as the lean man also hopped out.

“Just a love seat and your kitchen stuff?” he asked. His brother nodded.

“Yep. The kitchen stuff’s in a heavy box I have in the living room.

“Oh.”

Roman decided to go into the yellow trailer house while his brother got the truck ready. When he opened the front door, the lights were all off. Since it was bright outside, he didn’t bother trying to find the lightswitch; the sun shown in through the windows. Walking through the living room, he saw the roommate. His name was Max, but that was all Roman knew about him. That, and that he was lazy.

Max was walking through the living room, but when he saw the door open, he expected to see Austin and didn’t do anything. Then he saw that it was Roman and he hurried passed the young adult, hitting him with his shoulder as he took refuge from the “stranger” into his bedroom. Roman just blinked in utter confusion before shaking his head and going further into the room. He walked to the tall box of kitchen supplies and leaned against it to wait for his brother.

The insane heat outside was worse in the house. It was like an oven. All of the lights were off, including the AC. How was Max not dead yet? He’d just been lounging around in the dark until Austin and Roman got there.

Austin came in through the front door after a moment and walked to his younger brother. Roman looked at the man who always wore a hat.

“Why’s your roommate hiding?” he asked. Austin shook his head with a scoff.

“He’s fucking weird.”

Roman rose his eyebrows and grabbed the box. “Okay.” He held the top tightly as his brother grabbed the box from the bottom and lifted it into the air, so that the two held it like a heavy log. It was cardboard, though, full of glass and other things that rattled inside.

“Do you want me to go first?” Austin asked, looking at his kid brother. Roman shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter, I can go first.”

Roman walked backwards to the front door as his brother helped carry the box. They made it outside and down the porch steps, where they then put the box in the back of Austin’s truck. Then the two went back inside to get the love seat. It was a little more strenuous.

Austin walked backwards this time, and he tripped over his own boots, clambering to the side and hitting the door frame. Roman chuckled some.

“Are you okay?” he asked. It was something that went on in their family; they laughed when people got hurt. There had been countless times of laughter when someone walked into the screen door, or fell, or got hit in the head by something. It was funny until the person got mad. Then it went downhill. Austin dropped his side of the seat, leaving its weight for Roman alone. The young adult dropped his side on his foot on accident, but he didn’t say anything. He simply pulled his foot out from under and bit his bottom lip in agony.

“Stupid fucking seat- forget it! I’ll just leave it here, Bob can deal with it,” Austin said angrily. Roman breathed through his nose and looked away so that he wouldn’t get caught rolling his eyes. He hated it when Austin had fits like that.

“We can ask your roommate,” he said. Austin kicked the seat, making it move a centimeter on the floor from its shockingly heavy weight. Then he turned and left the house. Roman reluctantly followed. He could at least breath outside, though.

Getting back into the truck, Austin and Roman drove to the storage unit, where they got out and carried the box of kitchen things inside before locking up. There was a crackhead that Austin saw wandering around every other day digging in the garbage. He didn’t stop even as Austin and his brother drove by. What a weird guy.

“Are you going back to the house?” Austin asked Roman. The young adult nodded. He had short, curly brown hair that was smooth and silky. Brown and smooth from their dad, and curly from their mom’s mexican roots. He used to have a lot more curls, a lot, but he cut them off as a child and they never grew back. Austin’s hair was black and coarse like Rene’s, but he was balding early because of Leon. It was just the top of his head, so he wore hats ever since college to hide it. Both he and Roman had long eyelashes and light skin with just hints of natural tan. Rene was brown, so she always looked good in the summer. Roman always got sunburned. Austin always tanned a little bit. Leon just got freckles on his shoulders and back, always working in the sun’s rays and heat.

“Yeah, I was helping Mom move furniture,” Roman replied, glancing at his brother. He was always jealous that Austin’s eyes were a lighter shade of brown, while his were just dark, like eighty percent of the rest of the population. Leon’s eyes were blue, but the color of his irises and his blonde hair never got passed down. Before Roman was born, Leon and Rene were pregnant, when Austin was ten. Leon said later in life to Roman, “I knew it in my heart, it was gonna be a beautiful little girl with blue eyes and blonde hair”. He let Rene abort it, though. She didn’t want any children. Austin was born when they were sixteen. She thought that she would get married to a handsome man and have two kids, and her husband would play baseball with them and they would go to college. Instead, she got pregnant at sixteen and married a year later. And then she and Leon got into drugs, and she had to work as a pole dancer in clubs to bring in money when he got hurt riding his motorcycle.

She didn’t want another baby born into that life. They still ended up having Roman five years later, though, regardless. An abortion for nothing.

I could have had an older sister, Roman always thought to himself. Instead of dark and depressing, messed up in the head Austin, he could have had an older sister to help him cope with the pain of drugs and self harm growing up. He didn’t, though.

Roman crossed his arms and looked out the car door’s window. After about ten minutes of driving, Austin started talking about Prince and Micheal Jackson’s deaths being conspiratorial murders, a topic that Roman wasn’t keen on because he didn’t like their music or conspiracies, but he knew that Austin just brought it up because he knew he was wrong for getting upset earlier.

They got to Rene and Leon’s house and headed inside. From there, Austin and Rene left to smoke some pot and Roman hung out in the living room to watch Alien, a DVD he left there when he moved. And then his dad came home, a little after four. He flashed Roman a greeting smile through his beard and sweaty, sunken in face; because he had to. It’s what you do. You smile at people you don’t care about or know to be nice. Roman gave his father a jerky smile in return, to which he always scowled after doing when he father walked passed to find Rene.

“It’s fuckin’ hot outside,” Leon said with his wide, sullen eyes. Roman nodded in casual agreement.

“Yeah.”

“Where’s Mom?”

“Smoking with Austin.”

That was all. Leon walked by to find Rene and Austin. He didn’t say hi, or ask why he was there, or say “I love you”. He just crouched over with exaggerated panting and said “It’s fucking hot outside”. Roman was alright with that. He and his dad didn’t love each other. When his dad said “I love you”, it was because he and Rene were getting along and he wanted to put on a nice front. Austin could never bring himself to reply, though, no matter how fake it was. He just didn’t tell people he didn’t love “I love you”. He’d feel bad about it, if his dad died after not getting an “I love you” back, but that was it. He just couldn’t do it. Not since he was a kid. The familial love had been ruined when he welcomed his young son into the world of drugs, sex, rape, suicide, abuse, and hatred.

Since the family moved to the city, all of those things had been forgotten. No one talked about them. But Roman still had nightmares about them. And he still wondered “What would my life be like if we had never moved to that town?”.

The thoughts got to be too much and Roman left the house. It was still hot outside, but he didn’t live too far away and he didn’t want to ask for a ride. He found himself shaking his head multiple times while walking, at past memories or quotes that had been burned into his head. He just wanted to forget everything like everyone else had. He wanted to go back to six years old, living in Lawton, Oklahoma. When he had seen a mouse scamper by the glass door of their old trailer home and where his classmate Keeton played with his fingers when they were supposed to be sleeping in Nap Time during Preschool. From Kindergarten to junior year, he had live in the terrible place he dared to call his “hometown”. It was his hometown though. He lived there for eleven years. No, scratch that. He’d survived.

He wanted to go straight to bed, but once he got to his apartment, he found that someone was already standing by the door. It was the college kid from Tinder. He smiled to Roman when he saw him, his face looking soft and smooth like all college kids for some reason. They were so perfect, with all of that money.

“Hey,” he said to Roman. Roman breathed in deeply through his nose and laughed, something fake that he learned to do to hide his emotions. He was exceptionally good at it. The college kid seemed to fall for it.

“Sorry man, how long have you been out here? I was...out,” Roman said, smiling to the college kid while slipping by to unlock the door. The kid waved him off with a cool, “Eh, not long- I just got here too.” That was a lie, Roman could tell. The college kid’s perfect skin had some breaks of sweat. “Well, then, I guess we’re both on time,” Roman spoke and pushed the door open to step inside of his apartment. He flicked the light on and pointed off to the bathroom. “Mind if I take a shower first? You can help yourself to some beer.”

The college kid cleared his throat. “I’ll take a beer, but I’ve kind of been… waiting.”

Roman had thought before that the college kid may be in the closet, but the thought had faded away. Now, though, it was back full force by the look of shamed anticipation in the kid’s eyes. Roman rose his eyebrows before shrugging. “Okay..” He walked away to the kitchen, which was really just a room separated from the living room by a half wall. He went to the fridge to get the beer. He was too young to buy it himself, being younger than twenty one, but his mom liked having a drinking buddy, so she supplied him with a reasonable amount. The wine was sort of the same story; Austin wanted to be a wine connoisseur, so he would share good wines with Roman so that his idea didn’t sound silly.

Grabbing two beers from the fridge, Roman headed back to the college kid, who took one. The bottles were twist open, so the kid opened his own while Roman wrapped his shirt over his bottle to open it. He had various burn scars from cooking as a child and teen, but not all burns were from those. He had a third degree burn scar on his right foot from a cheap sparkler falling into his shoe as a child, quickly burning away his flesh as he screamed “Mommy!”. He had the imprint of a lighter on his left thigh from a party as a teen when a boy heated up his lighter before pressing it against Roman’s leg for fun. And then he had some scarring on his fingers from grabbing burning metal that singed away his right hand’s fingerprints. It wasn’t gross looking or anything, his fingers looked fine. They were just too soft to open bottles with barehanded.

He took some very much needed drinks from his beer. He wanted to get drunk and pass out, but he had forgotten about the kid coming over. He didn’t even notice how quickly the time had gone. He waited until the college kid dropped his beer to his side to ask, “Do you want the TV on? It’s just satellite, but,” Roman shrugged. The kid shook his head, bringing a hand up to run his fingers through is short, light brown hair.

“It’s okay.” He brought his beer back to his lips and took a step forward. Roman finished his own beer and turned to the side so that he could throw the empty bottle into the kitchen, aiming for the trashcan that he succeeded in. Then he waved for the kid to follow him while he walked to his room. He did, setting his empty bottle on the coffee table in the living room on the way.

Once they were inside the bedroom, Roman started stripping his clothes and the kid, unbuckling his cargo shorts. Roman rolled his eyes at himself for wearing pajama pants, but he didn’t know that he was going to be having sex that day. He put his clothes to the side and sat on the edge of his bed, where he looked up at the kid’s face. He was handsome, there was no denying. And he was lean and toned, too. He still looked just like the other spoiled kids that Roman had gone to school with, though. Neat hair, nice body, perfect lips and straight, white teeth, and an incessant need to wear blue and/or Under Armour. He was looking down, pulling his cock out of his boxers. His cheeks were flushed, but not nearly as much as the first time. Yeah, he must have been in the closet. Probably dating a hot girl and surrounded by rowdy jock friends.

Roman dropped his gaze to the kid’s cock, already semi-erect as the brunette college boy jerked it a little. The hood of his hand had jutting veins that ran up his arm, something that always looked nice to Roman. He took the kid’s cock into his hand, letting the brunette drop his hands to his sides. Roman couldn’t remember the kid’s name for the life of him. He remembered from last time that the kid’s Tinder name was fake, another call that he’s in the closet. He just couldn’t remember what the hell it really was.

He slipped the cock into his mouth, holding it at the base, and he could hear the kid sigh in content. Then he could feel a hand on his head, feeling his lightly curled hair. He started going down, bobbing his head up and down on the well sized cock. He dragged his tongue along the underside and the kid dropped his head back, curling his fingers in Roman’s hair.

Jacob, was that his name? It was some typical, handsome college boy name. Alex? No, it started with a J. But, maybe it was Andrew? Anthony? Fuck, he’d be stuck trying to remember for days.

“Ah, fuck,” the college kid hissed lightly when Roman went further onto his cock, pausing to adjust his throat around the length. He pulled off to swallow down the saliva building in his mouth and then started swirling his tongue around the tip. He could taste the precum that dribbled out of his slit. He glanced up and caught the kid looking at him, his cheeks appearing to be more flushed. The kid tore his green eyes away in embarrassment and Roman just went down on him again. He blew him for a little longer before getting up from the bed to get some condoms and lube. Then they started fucking.

Jayden was his name, Roman remembered later. He was holding Roman around his thin torso, fucking him from behind. Their bodies were sticky with sweat from the hot apartment, a ceiling fan the only thing helping to bring them comfort. Jayden had stripped his shirt earlier from the heat. There was a used condom on the floor, tied at the end like a small water balloon. Roman jerked his dick while getting fucked, kisses and light suckling taking his neck as he worked up his orgasm. Jayden thrust into the perfect curvature of Roman’s ass, his dick sliding in and out smoothly from his lubed condom. His thrusts were getting a little fervent, though, and rougher; his hips slapping against Roman’s backside. He panted in the other brunette’s ear while fucking him for a moment before quickly pulling himself out and sitting back. He tapped Roman’s hip.

Roman glanced back at Jayden before flipping onto his back and parting his legs. Jayden scoot between Roman’s legs and leaned over him. Roman grabbed the kid’s cock to line up to his ass, biting his lip as Jayden pushed himself inside and then crying out in pained pleasure as he started fucking him again.

“Ahh, fuck me harder,” Roman moaned as he stroked his cock, loving the pain of it when he got fucked rough. Jayden was quick to obey, slipping his arms under Roman’s legs to hold them up for better access to fuck him. He was moaning too, his cock burning with pins and needles and his chest feeling hot.

“Knock knock,” a voice called from the living room. Jayden pulled out of Roman and started putting himself away when the latter started to quickly climb out of the bed.

“Who’s that?” Jayden asked, zipping his shorts. Roman peeked out of the room before rushing to start gathering his clothes.

“Fuck, it’s some guy- shit, I fucking forgot I’m working today!” Roman swept up a sock from the floor to start wiping his lower regions of the sticky lubrication.

Jeff had a tendency to go into houses without knocking first. Hence the late “knock knock”. He was walking through the living room, looking over the beer bottle on the coffee table. “Roman, are you here?” he called, putting the bottle back down. There was a quick, “Yeah, I’m getting on some working shorts!” from the bedroom. Jeff shook his head and glanced off to the kitchen, where there was a plate of brownies. They were homemade, because Roman asked Jeff the other day if he had any eggs, so he supplied under the condition of “I better get one of those fucking brownies, now, ya here?”. So, he left to the kitchen to snag one from under the seran-wrap.

Taking one from the plate, he took a bite of it. There were five left, which meant that Roman probably hadn’t eaten one himself yet. He was one hell of a cook, a good baker if given instructions, and didn’t really eat too much of the stuff he made. The brownie was very good, though, Jeff thought. Then he took it with him back to the living room, where he waited for Roman.

“I ain’t got all day,” he called to the young adult. Roman groaned at the voice and pulled his shirt on over his head. He looked at Jayden, who stood awkwardly beside the bed.

“…You won’t steal anything, right? Please don’t steal anything; I need you to lock up to avoid anymore awkwardness, okay?” he said. Jayden nodded while rubbing his neck.

Roman left the room, dressed in a shirt, shorts, and his shoes. Jeff pointed at him.

“I’m gonna let you off leaving me here for so long because you gave me a good fucking brownie, alright?” the man said with that serious yet playful attitude. Roman rolled his eyes and walked over, which earned him a “Don’t you roll your eyes at me- did you roll your eyes at me? Oh, I’m gonna tell ‘ur momma!”

“Je-ff,” Roman complained, chuckling nervously for Jayden’s fate in the next room.