Friday night came. Jasper didn’t want to force the role of “designated driver” on any of them, so offered to pay for Ubers. Oliver would have been happy to be a designated driver, but realized there was no way he’d get through the event without a drink or two.53Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPlOzEe1u7x
Oliver arrived with Jyri. The bar wasn’t too crowded, though the room was filled with chatter. Most people sat at the actual bar, leaving many tables vacant. Jasper and Tim sat at one of them. Already, they had started drinking. Oliver and Jyri took seats across from them.
“Great to see you two here,” Jasper said. “It’s a pity, Tyler couldn’t make it tonight. And I haven’t heard word from Craig or Shawn.”
Hopefully Craig would bail and Shawn would show up immediately.
“I ordered us buffalo wings,” Jasper gestured towards a basket on the table. “We can’t have drinks without buffalo wings.”
“The buffalo here fly?” Jyri’s voice shook, eyes rounded in horror.
Jasper and Tim let out bursts of laughter.
“He hasn’t even started drinking and already the fun’s coming through.” Jasper wiped his eye. “Jyri, you are a riot.”
Jyri’s fearful expression changed to confusion as the two continued laughing. Oliver leaned towards him, voice lowered. “It’s not actually buffalo. It’s a special kind of chicken wing. Buffalo here stay on the ground.”
“Oh, thank Odis,” Jyri said quietly, hand over his chest.
“What do you want to drink, Yur-oo?” Jasper asked, handing him a small menu.
“Just water,” Jyri said.
“No. I won’t stand for it. You simply must drink something. What about a shot of whiskey?”
“No thank you. I don’t like the taste of alcohol.”
“Nonsense. Every man likes the taste of alcohol,” Jasper said. “Why, you must not be accustomed to it yet. If you keep drinking, you’ll learn to love it.”
“You can start with something minor,” Tim said. “How about a beer?”
“I’m fine.”
Jasper opened his mouth, but Oliver cut him off. “He doesn’t want anything. We should respect that.”
“I suppose.” Jasper let out a sigh. “Let me know the second you change your mind.”
“Oliver!” A hand landed on Oliver’s shoulder. He turned his head to see Shawn grinning at him. “I’m so glad you got here before me.” He took the chair next to Oliver. “God, it’s noisy in here.”
“Shawn, glad you could make it.” Jasper’s flat voice indicated the opposite, but he smiled a forced smile. “I’m surprised. I didn’t take you for the kind of guy to come to these things.”
“What?” Shawn asked loudly.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” Jasper said.
“Because I wanted to hang out with Oliver,” Shawn continued speaking loudly. He glanced at Oliver, who returned his smile.
“Why are you shouting?” Tim asked, equally loud.
Jasper snickered at Tim’s comment before responding to Shawn’s. “You two do that enough at work. I never see one of you without the other.”
“They’ve been like that since day one,” Tim said. “Oliver joined us first. Then Shawn came in a week or two after. They’ve been inseparable since.”
“We’ve been best friends since first grade.” Shawn spoke closer to a normal volume. “A couple of kids made fun of something Oliver brought for show-and-tell, so I kicked their asses.”
The kids actually kicked Shawn’s ass, but Oliver didn’t correct him.
“Damn. I can’t imagine that.” Jasper looked at Oliver. “What’d you bring that got you made fun of so bad?”
It was a unicorn plushie. Shawn came to Oliver’s defense because he loved unicorns. He wanted one himself, but his parents didn’t think it appropriate for a boy to have unicorn toys. Oliver felt bad for Shawn, and also appreciated how he stuck up for him. So he traded him the unicorn for the charizard action figure Shawn had brought. Oliver had liked Pokemon more than unicorns anyway.
He’d rather keep those details to himself. “I don’t remember.”
Jasper raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“It was over 20 years ago.”
“You’ve been friends for over 20 years?” Tim asked. “Did you keep going to the same schools?”
Shawn shook his head. “My parents home schooled me after elementary school. We kept in touch.”
“How sweet,” Jasper said. It was hard to tell if he was being condescending. “Staying up late chatting on AIM, I suppose? Or hours spent talking on the phone?”
“Sleepovers at each other’s houses?” Tim grinned.
“Oh my God!” Jasper laughed. “I bet they went to the same college, and shared a dorm room.”
It was all true. Oliver wasn’t quite sure how to respond, if at all.
“Maybe,” Shawn mumbled.
“I knew it.” Jasper smirked.
“Was there only one bed?” Tim asked.
“Sorry I’m late.” Craig arrived, and sat down between Jasper and Shawn. Jasper had his hand over his mouth. Shawn had his hand over his face. Craig glanced at both of them. “Did I miss anything?”
“Just Shawn Oliver’s origin story,” Jasper said. “There was only one bed.”
“Shawn Oliver!” Tim let out a hoot, and high-fived Jasper. “That was a good one.”
Oliver and Shawn shared a look. They should have lied and said they met in a college class.
“Well men, the drinks will be on the company’s expense,” Jasper said. “Order whatever you want.”
Oliver looked over a drink menu with Shawn. “I’m taking advantage of this,” Shawn said to Oliver. “What do you suppose the most expensive drink here is?”
Like Oliver would know any better than Shawn. Neither of them drank more than the occasional beer. “Maybe one of the cocktails?” Oliver’s eyes landed on something called a Long Island Iced Tea and he pointed to it. “That one has, like, five different types of liquor in it. It’s gotta be expensive.”
“Then that’s what I’m getting. What about you?”
Since he wasn’t paying for it, Oliver figured he might as well try something hard, to see what the big deal was. “Probably a whiskey.”
“Have you all made your decisions?” Jasper asked, getting up from his chair. “Still just water for you, Jyri?”
Jyri nodded. Craig, Shawn, and Oliver told him what they wanted. Tim already had his first drink, but asked for another. Jasper walked over to the bar to order for them. Oliver noticed that the bar had gotten a little more crowded. Most tables were taken now. Shawn shifted uncomfortably next to him.
“What’s this origin story I missed?” Craig asked.
“Shawn and Oliver have been friends for over 20 years,” Tim said. “They met in first grade.”
“Really? That’s a long time.” Craig looked at the two. “No big fights split you up?”
One almost did. When Oliver came out to Shawn, back in high school. Shawn had been raised to believe being gay was wrong, and seemed to think Oliver was choosing to be gay. He kept pushing Oliver to go back to being straight. Oliver, of course, couldn’t. They didn’t speak to each other for months. Oliver glanced at Shawn, who stared at the table. He was probably remembering it too.
“There was one,” Shawn admitted. “But we made up later.”
Jasper returned with drinks and more buffalo wings, an employee behind him helping. The group dug into the wings. Except Jyri.
“Aren’t you going to have some?” Shawn asked Jyri loudly.
Jyri dodged his question by showing a sudden interest in the rest of the story. “And then what happened?”
“I apologized to Oliver for being a dick, and we were friends again.” Shawn pushed the basket of wings towards Jyri. “Try one.”
Jyri shook his head. “I don’t like them.”
“How do you know if you haven’t tried them?”
“I don’t like chicken, so I won’t like those."
“All chicken is different. At least take a bite.”
“You’re being a dick,” Jyri said.
Oliver covered a snort while Jasper and Tim laughed. Shawn shook his head, but stopped persisting.
Things grew dull after that. Oliver learned he didn’t care for the taste of hard liquor at all. It burned his throat. He had to force himself to drink it.
Jasper and Tim, drunk at this point, held a discussion involving women and sexual conquests. Craig rambled on about the Bermuda Triangle to nobody. Jyri looked like he’d rather be anywhere else while Shawn gazed at Oliver through sips of his Long Island Iced Tea. He stirred the remaining ice in his empty glass with his straw, and used his other hand to prop his chin up. Something about the position reminded Oliver of a love-struck teenage girl.
It was starting to make Oliver uncomfortable. “Is there something on my face?”
“What?”
“My face,” Oliver spoke louder. “Is there something on it?”
“No.” Shawn continued absentmindedly stirring, eyes still on Oliver. “Your face is beautiful. Like the rest of you.” His voice was gentle, filled with admiration. “You’re beautiful, and I love you.”
Oliver flushed at Shawn’s words. Not knowing how to respond, he drank the last of his whiskey in one gulp. The burn had gotten easier to ignore, but the sensation was still unpleasant.
Jasper slapped at the table. “Damn Shawn, are you drinking yourself gay?”
“Not at all.” Shawn set his hand back down, and switched from stirring his ice to stabbing it. “No offense to Ollie, but I’m still choosing to be straight, and that’s the orientation I will always choose regardless of how drunk I get.”
Oliver tilted his head to the side, wondering if he understood Shawn’s incoherent babbling correctly. His mind was fuzzy, but it sounded like Shawn thought orientation was a choice. Everyone stared at Shawn though, leading Oliver to believe he did hear correctly.
Craig was the first to break the silence. “You… chose to be straight?”
Jasper and Tim laughed hard at that. Tim clutching his stomach, Jasper with his head tilted back.
“Well, yeah.” Shawn said, as though it was obvious. “When I started experiencing attraction, I chose to focus it on women.”
“Holy shit!” Jasper slapped at the table as he doubled over in another fit of laughter.
“What the hell was in your drink? Tim asked between laughs of his own, wiping tears from his eyes.
Oliver’s thoughts went straight to that long-ago fight. His jaw nearly dropped. Suddenly Shawn’s insistence that Oliver could simply “go back to being straight” made sense. Shawn wasn’t being difficult, or refusing to accept the facts. He sincerely believed Oliver could choose. Hell, Shawn must’ve thought Oliver was the one being difficult.
Shawn looked at Oliver in genuine confusion. “Did I miss something?”
Clearly Shawn wasn’t as straight as he thought. But how to break the news to him? Oliver reached over to put his hand over Shawn’s, but it somehow ended up on his thigh instead. Jasper and Tim howled at that. Shawn simply smiled.
Oliver removed his hand from Shawn. “I don’t know how to tell you this...”
“Tell me what?”
“You’re bisexual!” Jasper hollered. “Oh my God.”
“And Oliver’s gay,” Tim added. “Oh man. Where’s the one bed when you need it?”
Shawn glared at them. “I’m not bisexual!”
“Have you ever found men attractive?” Oliver asked.
“Of course. And I suppress my attraction to men in favor of women because, I chose to be straight.”
“A repressed bisexual!” Jasper cried through guffaws. “Even better.”
“Is that not normal?” Shawn asked Oliver. “Do you not suppress attraction to women in favor of men? Because you chose to be gay?”
Oliver remembered living his teen years in a constant state of anxiety over his peers finding out he was gay. What they would say or do. What his parents would say or do. How, as an adult, he struggled to find a compatible life partner. How he kept having to come out again and again to new acquaintances whenever they’d ask about girlfriends. Lying or dodging questions if he didn’t feel safe doing so. “Why would I choose to be gay?”
“I kept asking you that, back then,” Shawn said, sounding slightly irritable. “But you never answered. You kept saying ‘it’s who I am!’ That you couldn’t change.”
“Because I couldn’t. Most people don’t choose what gender to be attracted to.”
“I don’t believe it.” Shawn shook his head, and looked at Jyri. “You’ve been quiet. Did you choose a gender?”
“I don’t feel such things at all,” Jyri said.
“Nonsense,” Jasper said. “You feel such things about Jessica.”
“I don’t feel such things about Jessica,” Jyri grumbled.
“You just need to expand your horizons a bit.” Jasper’s eyes landed on a group of young women celebrating something at the nearest table. “Those fine ladies look single and ready to mingle. How about one of them?”
Jyri didn’t look, instead staring at his half-empty glass of water. “I’d rather not.”
“Come on. Don’t be such a buzz kill.” Jasper got out of his chair, grasped Jyri’s arm, and pulled him to his feet. “At least come check them out. Why, one of them even looks like your precious Jessica.” He pointed to a woman who did look eerily similar to Jessica. Except the woman had her hair down, whereas Jessica always kept hers tied back.
Jyri’s eyes widened at the sight of the woman, and he yanked his arm away. “No!”
The woman, along with her friend group, noticed them. Her eyes widened. “Jyri?”
Jyri tucked his hair behind his ear and mumbled “hello” to the floor.
“What are you doing here with...” Jessica’s voice trailed off as her eyes landed on first Jasper, then Tim, Craig, Oliver, and Shawn.
“They made me come,” Jyri said quickly.
“We’re not the only ones making him come,” Tim said to Jasper. The two snickered like a pair of 8th graders. Oliver stared at his empty glass, debating on ordering another. Shawn resumed stabbing his ice. This time while bouncing his leg.
“Is this the Jyri you’ve told us about?” a woman next to Jessica asked.
“Yep. Jyri, come meet my friends.”
Jyri walked over to the table, and took an empty chair next to Jessica. Jasper and Tim sat back down.
“A woman friends with Jessica is a woman I want nothing to do with,” Jasper said. “My plan to get Jyri laid with a decent girl has backfired.”
Jyri returned to Oliver. “You can leave without me. Jessica says she’ll drive me home.”
“She has a boyfriend,” Shawn shouted.
“I wasn’t talking to you!” Jyri shouted back, and returned to Jessica’s table.
“Harsh.” Jasper stood up. “I think we’re done at this one. What do you say, Tim? Wanna do some bar hopping tonight? Maybe we’ll have luck at The Puddle Hut.”
“Oliver and I are going home,” Shawn said loudly as he stumbled out of his chair. “It’s too noisy and crowded!”
It had gotten much more crowded than when they had first arrived. Crowds didn’t bother Oliver nearly as much as they did Shawn, but he had no desire to spend another minute there either.
Jasper and Tim exchanged a look, then laughed.
“Going home to that one bed, eh?” Tim winked at them.
But Shawn had already left the table, and bumped into another table. Oliver hurried over to help him. Not that Oliver was walking any better.
The air outside was cool and refreshing. It was also a lot quieter. Shawn continued swaying, so Oliver led him to a bench and they sat down.
Shawn closed his eyes with a sigh of relief. After a few minutes of silence, he had a sudden laughing fit.
It was contagious. Oliver found himself giggling along too, though he wasn’t sure what was funny.
“That outing sucked!” Shawn leaned against Oliver. “God, I remember why I hate bars. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying half the time. But I’m also too drunk to care.”
“It’s okay, you didn’t miss much.”
“Other than discovering other people don’t choose their orientation,” Shawn said. “Are you sure you all weren’t messing with me?”
“No, we weren’t.”
Shawn laughed into Oliver’s shoulder. “That explains our fight. What a crazy misunderstanding.”
Oliver let out a snort of laughter. “All this time, you were bisexual.”
At those words, Shawn laughs turned into what might have been sobs. He buried his head into Oliver’s jacket. “My life is ruined!”
“Your life hasn’t changed.” Oliver rubbed Shawn’s back. “You’re still the same person-”
“My family’s gonna disown me and Valerie’s gonna break up with me!”
“You don’t have to tell them. I didn’t, at first.”
“But isn’t that lying? Especially when it’s your partner?” Shawn looked up at him. “This is a big thing to hide.”
It was a good point. But from what Oliver knew of Valerie, he had a feeling things would be better if she didn’t know. “It’s your decision.”
Shawn stared at Oliver, silent.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s… I really don’t want to tell her. I can’t see that conversation going well.” Shawn winced, rubbing his forehead. “My head hurts.”
“You probably need water. And maybe food. When did you last eat?”
“I ate a couple of the buffalo wings.”
“Before that?”
Shawn shrugged. “Lunch?”
“You must be starving.” Oliver himself could go for some food.
“Maybe. I don’t know. You know I can never tell when I am.” Shawn rambled on. “We can get food. But could we get it to go and eat somewhere quiet? I can’t handle any more crowds.”
Oliver checked the time on his phone. 9:03. “I was planning on going straight home. What about you?”
“I was planning on going home too, but I don’t want to see Valerie right now. I mean, I love her and all. But I need time alone to process this bisexual thing.”
As much as Oliver wanted to go home, he didn’t want to leave Shawn. It had been way too long since they last spent time together outside of work. “If you want, you can stay over at my place.”
Shawn smiled. “That sounds nice. Is there room for me though? Didn’t you mention Faye having to sleep on the couch?”
“There might be room in my bed.” Oliver grinned.
“As long as Tim and Jasper don’t find out.”53Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhjVuSlUmbm
and then Add to home screen.