We Are Only Friends

Chapter 1

"Hey, that'sh not fair!" Jason slurred as he unbuttoned his shirt with unsteady fingers. I just smirked at him as the other guys laughed. We were playing strip poker with the added penalty of tequila shots and my best friend was terrible at it so he was downing shots and loosing clothes at an alarming rate.

The entire team was at my house for our weekly 'team chill' as we called it, since my parents weren't home. Our captain wanted us to spend more time together as a team to improve team dynamics. His plan was met with some resistance but it turned out he was right; once we started to know each other our game improved tenfold. It made sense though, since underwater hockey didn't afforded a lot of talk time.

Poker was a regular thing at these chills, and sometimes we added tequila just for the fun of it, but combining that with stripping was Eddie's idea. He always had these crazy ideas, and somehow we always ended up going along with it, even though it was only us guys. It's not like we were uncomfortable with each other's bodies anyway — our 'uniforms' (i.e. swimming briefs) left little to the imagination after all. But it took a few shots for the atmosphere to return to the usual relaxed banter with the added loudness that came from lubrication.

Except for Lionel, my other best friend. He looked a bit tense as he took his turn, and gave a frustrated groan as he lost his second shoe. He bent forward and fumbled with the laces, and I got the feeling it had nothing to do with his alcohol intake.

I leaned over casually to not draw attention to us.

"You okay man?" I asked quietly.

He just flushed and straightened. "Yeah, I'm fine," he mumbled, eyes downcast.

I've known Lionel forever. He was lying.

I played my hand without incident, then it was Jason's turn and he lost again. Everyone started cheering when he downed his shot and started to do a little striptease with his pants. I laughed and joined in the jeering; it was nice to see Jay loosen up, he was the most serious guy I knew. That's when I saw it, the way Lionel was watching him with hooded eyes, and things suddenly clicked.

As I've said, I've known Lionel forever and knew him better than I knew myself. We also knew the other's sexual orientation: Lionel was bi and loved to experiment, while I was gay and not as experienced as he was, but despite our longstanding attraction we've decided not to risk our friendship by taking things further. We kept our sexual preferences to ourselves though, because things might get a bit awkward with the guys considering how much time we spent together semi-naked.

When Jason joined the team a year ago, Lionel and I quickly became good friends with him but I always got the vibe that he was straight, which probably explained why Lionel hasn't made a move on him. But right now I guess the tequila has lowered his guards because the desire in his eyes was unmistakable.

I gave him a look that said I saw and that if I saw, someone else might see too. He quickly looked away.

Things were fast approaching that point where no one was playing poker anymore because everyone was too plastered. It came as no surprised when Jason was the first to loose all his clothes, which also signalled the end of our game and our captain told everyone to go home.

Jason and Lionel were staying over at my house, so we remained where we were while everyone else started to leave. I glanced at Lionel who was once again staring at Jason. Suddenly I couldn't think of a single reason why the two people I liked the most in the world shouldn't get together.

I grabbed Jason's clothes.

"The loser gets to spend the night naked!" I declared, which resulted in a heated struggle between me and Jason for his clothes. I must say, I've never noticed him in that way before, but it was quite erotic to have him pressed up against me with no barriers, his fingers clawing at my chest. The guy was hot, that's for sure. I threw the clothes at Lionel who caught them, surprised, but immediately played along. Poor Jason, he didn't stand a chance.