𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕒𝕕 𝕀𝕕𝕖𝕒

Prologue

Aubrey

I hated Elijah Cruz.

We never really got along all that great, but what irreversibly changed things between us happened on my twenty fifth birthday two years ago at my grandpa's house. I was still fucking pissed about it.

Plus, he always hated me to begin with, too. Not only me, but my best friend, Todd. Always. Since the day we met.

Putting it plainly, I thought he was a selfish asshole who thought the world revolved around him.

I really liked reminding him that it fucking didn't.

I didn't understand why he was in the friends group to begin with, or how he ended up being allowed to join the campouts and the group chat. I didn't understand how it had been about ten years since we all started hanging out like this and somehow... This fucking guy was still around. Gary hadn't kicked him out yet for how he treated me and my best friend.

All he ever did was try and get into everyone's pants. Mostly Wayne's... Thinking back on it, Eli worked as a car mechanic and ended up in the friend group because he worked on Wayne's car for three months pro-bono. He was hoping to get paid with a lay or something. 'Cause again, he was a total slut for any gay man within ten feet of him. Obviously, that never happened -- hooking up with Wayne. He tried and tried, hilariously, and it never fucking happened.

Wayne really only ever hooked up with Todd.

But Eli and Wayne were attached at the hip for a while, and when I thought about how Eli even ended up in my life, that was how it all started.

More recently, Eli had been on some sort of angry rampage, lashing out at me constantly like an emotional punching bag, because Wayne only had eyes for Todd.

My Todd.

My best friend. The only man, besides the man who raised me, that I'd ever truly loved in my whole life. But I guess Todd wasn't mine so much anymore these days... He was Wayne's.

So while Eli was trying to get over Wayne, and taking it out on me, I was trying to get over Todd.

I wasn't Todd's type. That's why we weren't together. We had a two week dating stint back in high school, and when someone suddenly tells you they break up because you're not their type... That shit hurts.

I took that as Todd telling me I wasn't doing it for him in the bedroom, and I don't think my confidence ever recovered from that.

I didn't get it back then, but seeing all the guys he'd hook up with over the years I started to better understand what his type was and he was right... I wasn't it.

He was into Wayne, for example. Everyone, including fucking Elijah Cruz, was into Wayne... Wayne was 6'4", built like a goddamn tank, soulful brown eyes, an intricate tattoo dedicated to his mother's passing on his left shoulder blade. He had a deep voice, was the strong silent type, and to top it all off he was from Texas and sported a southern accent.

I was nothing like Wayne.

I wasn't from Texas, I was from LA. I had French Canadian roots. Aubrey was a French family name my parents gave me, and it was feminine as hell. I was 5'7", vegan, unable to grow a beard, not a single scar or tattoo. I was the most average looking brown-hair-brown-eyed guy on the planet, spending an hour working out every day just to keep scraping by on my physique. I was obsessed with musicals and dance, but somehow found success doing commercial acting work in LA right out of high school. I consumed a concerning number of energy drinks. I worked at a coffee shop part-time because commercial work doesn't pay bills. I dressed like a basic bitch most of the time, aside from maybe my old boots that I refused to throw out, but I also liked being half-naked and dousing myself in glitter to dance in gay clubs until 2 AM.