Fragile Threads [boyxboy]

Chapter 13

Ethan met Brent’s eyes in the locker room, but Brent looked away first. Ethan rolled his eyes and went to his usual place at the locker. A minute later Ari showed up at his side. “Hey,” Ari greeted. He started taking off of his shirt to change.

Ethan stalled mentally for a moment before remembering he was supposed to be changing too. “Has Brent said anything to you?” Ethan asked. He hadn’t been to distraught over the distance from his previous friends; but Brent and Ari were different. They were always weight lifting partners too—up until the past three days.

“No. Why? Has he said anything to you?” Ari questioned dangerously, shooting a glare back at Brent.

“No. I was just wondering,” Ethan muttered.

“Well, you’re spotting me on weights again today, right?” Ari asked, elbowing Ethan in the side with a smile.

“You know I hate that. Even if you drop something, what am I going to do? You press almost as much as I weigh,” Ethan sighed. “Ask Landon.”

“You need to work on your arms too. You know how you see the guys with the thick upper body and then chicken legs? Well you’re doing it backwards. You’re going to have built legs, but noodle arms.” Ari put his arms out and made a worm-like motion with them.

Ethan rolled his eyes and agreed. He spotted Ari on the bench first, while Landon did arm curls next to them. Landon kept counting off on odd numbers, trying to mess up Ari’s count. Finally Ari gave up and punched Landon in the arm and called him a jackass.

“It’s okay Ethan, I won’t do it to you,” Landon promised with an overly-sweet voice. “Only if I really wanted to be killed.”

Ari groaned and made a motion to hit him again. Landon jumped away as Ari stopped short. “Such violence,” Landon teased.

“You’re supposed to be spotting me,” Ethan complained as he switched out the weights to something that weighed less than he did.

Ari watched over him on the bench and Ethan did a quick set of reps. From there he retreated to the leg machine and watched Landon mess with Ari for the rest of the class. Brent had pretty much taken to ignoring them, but he was looking at them a lot more today than usual.

The class ended, and Brent stopped them at the door before the locker rooms. “Ari,” he said, and glanced down to Ethan. “And Ethan.”

Ethan could see Ari straighten up defensively, and Brent looked like he was ready for something to happen to. Brent let out a long breath. “Do you want to come to dinner Friday night?” Brent asked quickly. “At my house.”

Ethan frowned in confusion. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Did your mom suggest it?” Ari asked, knowing something that Ethan apparently didn’t.

“Yeah,” Brent admitted. “She says that you and I are friends and I shouldn’t care about who you date.” Brent paused. “I mean like not care about the gender of the person you date.”