The Mansion of Men

Secret to no one

Everything about this was so wrong.

Tem knew it.

He could see the quiet judgement in Porsche's eyes, or the sad knowledge in Tay's, every time Tem showed up to a hangout with Porsche and his new, rich friends.

At first, he'd convinced himself that he deserved some type of happiness in all this. That it didn't matter when Tay called and Time put his hands over Tem's mouth to keep him silent. That it was nothing when Tem was promised a birthday date for two, but got cancelled on because "something came up."

He could endure it.

When Time started complaining about TheMansionOfMen, Tem got curious. A bunch of stories about everyone existing on sex and romance?

In theory? It sounded like fun. In reality? According to Time, it was trash.

In hind sight, Tem should have stayed away from it. Because, going in search of it, was how he found them. Lots and lots of stories about Time and Tay. Stories about how helpless Tay was in loving a scoundrel like Time and how much more important Tay was to Time. How nothing or nobody would ever surpass Time's feelings for Tay.

Tem knew it. He'd always known.

Reading about it didn't hurt as much as he'd thought it would.

Out of curiosity, weeks after, he'd searched for his own name, knowing that nothing would come of it.

He'd been wrong.

Because Tem was on the site. In multiple stories. Doing many, many things. With many people. Tem wasn't the side piece to a rich boy who didn't appreciate him. Tem wasn't a liar who snuck around behind his friends, just to see Time on Time's schedule.

In those stories, on that site, Tem was handsome and strong. Tem was intelligent. Tem was new in someone's eyes. Tem was worthy of more.

It was hard not to blush with the way he was described during sex, but there were cute stories, too. Stories with him and Tankhun were the most common ones. He found himself wondering if the authors on the site saw something that he hadn't seen. If everyone else was experiencing some happiness on his behalf by reading those stories, while Tem agonized over a man that would never be his.

In a week, Tem read through everything that mentioned him, even the ones that were focused on others. He'd had to spend most of his time in Porsche's room to access the site, but it was so, very worth it. Because reading about himself was the glorious douse of cold water that Tem needed.

That weekend, when Time called to meet up, Tem refused to answer. Maybe he hadn't known it before, maybe it never occurred to him. But Tem's eyes were finally open.

And, now he knew he deserved better.