There Are Worse Things I Could Do (18+)

20. Ana

The next couple of months were pretty...

Ok I wouldn't say magical.

But...nice. Unexpectedly very pure and sweet and fun. Very nice.

The night of my first sleepover with Theo and Liam, we ended up staying up til the sun came up, just talking and getting to know each other.

And there may or may not have been some cuddling, and it somehow wasn't weird at all.

I learned that they met in a domestic violence shelter as kids, and they quickly became best friends. Liam's mom and his little siblings live in Florida. He's like a junior dad, like Daniel. His father still lives in California, as far as he's aware, but he has no relationship with him.

Theo's mom lives in Vermont, but they don't really keep in touch that well. He said she's remarried, and he doesn't really like the guy, but his mom has made it clear that she doesn't want him getting involved. His sister lives in London, and they talk maybe one or two times a year.

...And his father is dead.

I didn't ask how or when he died. Not only because I doubted he even cared, given that his father was abusive and honestly sounded like he could be besties with my gem of a father.

But there was...a weird energy, when he brought it up. Liam and Theo's demeanors changed, just slightly. Something was telling me I should ask for more details about how he died...but that I didn't really want to know.

If I was being completely honest, there were a few moments like that.

Like when I asked how they could afford such a nice place, while working at the shelter full-time. There was a weird pause, followed by a weird look they exchanged, followed by a weird smile from Theo.

Then they told me they were able to get full rides to UC, Berkeley, worked high-paying, odd jobs throughout school—not specifying what exactly those jobs were—and then they eventually developed some kind of techy organizational system for a huge corporation, plus a few apps that did surprisingly well. And they're basically just living off of their passive income now.

And then the subject was quickly changed, and I pretended that none of that weird conversation was that weird, and it was back to happy times and cuddles and laughs.

Daniel and Emma got married, and I went to the wedding without Theo and Liam, which was expected, since we're not dating. But I couldn't help but notice that it felt...empty without them around. Mom had Uncle Rurik there "just as friends", Aaliyah had Jonathan, Kayden even brought a date. I could not tell you her name if you held a fucking gun to my face.

Aaliyah was completely floored when I told her about my "I'll need to invest in good lube" comment to the guys, immediately sent me all kinds of articles about threesomes and polyamory, exclaiming that this was "huge", and I should invite them over so she could meet them.

But since we're just friends, nothing had even happened between us yet, and I never wanted to have a talk with my family about...potentially dating two guys at once at some point...Aaliyah suggested I should bring Zachary to the wedding.

Except, I hadn't spoken to him in months. He was a good guy, but at this point, we were just each others booty calls a few times a year.

Plus, the booty was mediocre.

So I went without a plus-one, to a wedding in the middle of the woods on a random Tuesday. Watched Daniel pledge his love and devotion to the poor girl he was unhealthily obsessed with. I watched Emma bawl her eyes out—with happiness? Hopefully?—and watched them kiss and dance and watched Daniel grope Emma like he'd definitely already be fucking her if there weren't so many of her family members around.