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    Zuri
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

For you - 7. Chapter 7

The waiter brought the receipt. He was around our age, and I’d lie if I said, I hadn’t noticed that he looked hot. But what does it mean when you look at someone, and you like what you see? What do other people think at that moment? Does “hot” mean, you would like to have sex with them? Is it weird that I would be fine with just looking at them? Why is sex even that important to many, even if a fair amount of them would deny it?

I handed the waiter my credit card, and while he disappeared with it, I glanced over to the restrooms where Rhys had headed a minute ago. Since he was not back yet, I grabbed my phone from my pocket and tried to find the meme I was thinking about the other night. It took me a while, but I was finally successful. The user who posted it was gay, like me, and also seemed to be very political. I scrolled down his feed. Then, I stopped as I saw a picture of a flag with a black, a gray, a white, and a purple horizontal stripe, and the text “Happy Asexual Awareness Week/Ace Week!”. I scrolled a little further and encountered a retweet of another “expectation vs reality” picture, this time showing a kiss from Heartstopper on the left and a grindr chat message, reading “Can we have a phone wank now please”. I mean, there was a certain truth to this, wasn’t it?

“I’m only gone for five minutes, and you are already looking for a replacement on Grindr,” Rhys teased me.

No way, he could have seen my phone’s screen from where he was standing.

“Was I that bad?” he added.

“I thought, a little competition would ensure upholding its high quality,” I replied, sticking out my tongue.

“Oh, quality of our sexual services and pleasure of our customers is our primary principle,” he responded, pretending to be a businessman of sorts.

The waiter returned with my credit card. When he was gone again, Rhys remarked: “He looks good, doesn’t he?”

“I noticed that as well.”

“I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. You look alright, too.”

“Thanks,” I laughed, not sure if that was a compliment or an insult—knowing Rhys, it might just as well been both.

We got up and left.

“You know, I so gonna eat your ass tonight,” Rhys said, looking in my direction, almost piercing me.

“You better be,” I said, sending back an equally piercing stare, before I cracked a smile.

“You have been warned.”

 

Was that how relationships worked? Was everything about sex, even though, you don’t even have sex at that moment? How had such an activity among countless others become that important, that unique, that central? Would every evening be like this from now on? I did nearly anything as often as this, except for work, perhaps. But this was different. Or was it? Sure, there were people who got paid for this, paid to pretend to like it. Just like I pretended. There, I said it. Pretended. Never heard it as clear as that before. But only ugly men bought sex, right? But Rhys was everything but ugly. And he didn’t pay me—so that didn’t count. But was it really that different? Wasn’t pretending dishonest? Should I tell him? But I didn’t want to make him feel bad, make him think, he was the problem. I didn’t even have a term for that. Asexual—that’s what it was supposed to be called, right? But was I asexual? Could I picture myself this way? I mean, I wasn’t sorta dysfunctional? I mean, everyone did it. I also liked porn and jerking off. So could I really be asexual? And I liked men. That would be a contradiction, wouldn’t it?

Copyright © 2022 Zuri; All Rights Reserved.
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Believe it or not, but I do believe in feedback being a currency—at least for content you get for free(!). And before you might think, I might like to change it: I like it to be free. However, feedback ultimately is what motivates me (you could say "fuels me"). Without feedback, how could I possibly know what you think about it and if you crave more or just desperately want me to shut up for once? That's why feedback is important. And by "feedback", I don't just mean clicking a random emoji; I don't necessarily mean writing a wall of text either. Just a few, but personal lines—after all, that's what distinguishes you folks from bots. I really want to go this journey with you, but in order to do that, I need to know, you are there with me. So don't hesitate to post your few cents below a chapter, be it praise or a list of things you didn't like—one comment is still more than none. I'm looking forward to reading from you!
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Chapter Comments

I like when first person POV characters talk to themselves in their head. It's one of the major benefits of this narrative, and you use it well.

Quote

“I’m only gone for five minutes, and you are already looking for a replacement on Grindr,” Rhys teased me.

No way, he could have seen my phone’s screen from where he was standing.

“Was I that bad?” he added.

“I thought, a little competition would ensure upholding its high quality,” I replied, sticking out my tongue.

This is the first time I think they're cute together, but it's also bittersweet. Our protagonist being ace becomes apparent, yet Rhys is most likely the opposite, caring about sex more than anything else. I like that you're exploring the fact that even marginalized gay people are often very close-minded when it comes to sexuality, is our protagonist aego?

I hope that Rhys' intense focus on sex doesn't become an issue.

Thanks for posting, please continue. This chapter reads much better and more personal than the previous ones. Feels like we're in the moment now. :)

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Zuri

Posted (edited)

10 hours ago, James Baxter said:

both innocent and profound. 

@James Baxter I'm afraid, I have to ask: What do you mean by that in this context?

 

6 hours ago, drown said:

you use it well. […] This chapter reads much better and more personal than the previous ones. Feels like we're in the moment now. :)

@drown Thank you ☺️

6 hours ago, drown said:

This is the first time I think they're cute together, but it's also bittersweet.

I'm glad, I was able to write characters, you can emphasize with :) Oh, and bittersweet is the best taste :devil: 2 in 1, so to speak 😜

6 hours ago, drown said:

I like that you're exploring the fact that even marginalized gay people are often very close-minded when it comes to sexuality

I think, that's a topic not talked about often enough. And gay men, while being marginalized in terms of their sexual orientation, are privileged in terms of their gender. Another eye-opening thing, I read in a fascinating book, is that gay people, despite having had the chance to create a community from scratch, decided to model it closely after the cisheteromononormative society, they were ostracized by.

While rereading my own chapter, especially the last paragraph, I thought, it would be fun to turn it into an audiobook, but then I thought back to Rhys' announcement only a few lines above that or the sex scenes which were uncomfortable enough to write 😅

Quote

I scrolled a little further and encountered a retweet of another “expectation vs reality” picture, this time showing a kiss from Heartstopper on the left and a grindr chat message, reading “Can we have a phone wank now please”.

The tweet in question: https://nitter.net/SHaedrich/status/1526161700097085442#m

6 hours ago, drown said:

is our protagonist aego?

I should have known this, but I had to look it up. I won't tell my protagonist, what his labels are and he hasn't told me. I don't think so in terms of what is based on me, but beyond that, who knows … 🤷‍♂️

6 hours ago, drown said:

I hope that Rhys' intense focus on sex doesn't become an issue.

What would be a story without drama? :devil:😜

Edited by Zuri
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22 minutes ago, Zuri said:

Another eye-opening thing, I read in a fascinating book, is that gay people, despite having had the chance to create a community from scratch, decided to model it closely after the cisheteromononormative society, they were ostracized by.

We’re all products of the society we grew up in, to an extent.

But monogamous homosexual homoromantic gay men exist, and I would not like to invalidate their existence. It only becomes an issue when they fail to see the other shades of the rainbow.

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Zuri

Posted (edited)

4 hours ago, drown said:

But monogamous homosexual homoromantic gay men exist, and I would not like to invalidate their existence.

They do. I never intended to erase them. But they have their share of representation. Others getting it too, doesn't mean, taking it away from the aforementioned. What I meant, was not that they can't be monogamous, homosexual, and/or homoromantic, but that they have stereotypical thinking like "top" and "bottom" as defining, often exclusive and dividing traits for example.

 

4 hours ago, drown said:

Oh btw, one of my favorite shifter series, the Green Creek series by TJ Klune, includes both ace and aro characters. The author himself is asexual. More representation is always good.

Sounds interesting 🤔 I might check that one out, too 👍

  

11 hours ago, drown said:

aego

It was an epiphany when I first read a novel (written in German) where the protagonist turned out to be aroace, and focuses on more platonic relationships, which she experiences more intensely.

I don't know, where you asked this, but yes, I'm also asexal. I just didn't want to spoil you ^^ So, even though, story-wise I can't relate this much to my protagonist, character-wise, I definitely can.

Edited by Zuri
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On 1/24/2024 at 8:29 AM, drown said:

is our protagonist aego?

On 1/24/2024 at 2:28 PM, Zuri said:

I don't think so in terms of what is based on me, but beyond that, who knows … 🤷‍♂️

@drown It's so funny, since @Gary L is currently reading this story and we had a series of vandalism in the LGBT wiki recently, which also involved the article about aego. So, after reverting the vandalism, I checked if I hadn't missed anything by skimming over the article, which caused me to read the definition of the term. I have to admit, you might have been on to something, I wasn't able to see back then 😅

By the way, for some who might be interested: https://chimeriquement.itch.io/kissing-snow-white

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