You Smell Like... Mine (Book 1 in the 'You Smell' series)

Chapter 25- Bed Buddies

Asher's POV

I am still about 20 minutes away from my parent's house when my phone starts ringing. Grabbing the bluetooth headset from my cup holder and placing it on my ear, I press accept.

"Hello?" At first, all I can hear is sniffling. "Hello?"

"Hey Asher, it's Brandon." He finally responds, but his voice is gruff.

"Hey man, are you alright?" I ask.

"Uh-sniff-Yeah yeah. Um, I was just wondering if maybe I could crash at your place tonight?" He says, still sounding off.

"Sure. I don't see why not. Do you have a way to get there? I didn't think you had a car." I'm not sure what's going on, but something is definitely wrong.

"Uh, no... I don't. Could you maybe pick me up? I'm on campus. I totally forgot that they lock the dorms up tight on the weekends, so I'm stuck outside." He tells me.

"Alright, I can be there in about 10 minutes. Can you meet me in the Willow Hall parking lot, though? It would be a lot quicker to get to."

"Yeah man, no problem. See you there." I hear one more quiet sniffle before the line goes dead.

I go a little over the speed limit, trying to make better time. Something clearly happened with Brandon. He should still be at home which is an hour north of campus. Without a car, how did he get back here? I guess I will find out soon enough.

When I finally reach the parking lot Brandon jogs over and gets in the passenger's seat tossing his bag on the backseat."Hey, thanks for doing this man." He says as he pulls on his seat belt.

I pull out of the lot, pointing my car towards home before responding."It's fine, really. I was already on my way home from visiting Ivy, and this was on the way so it's no big deal. Do you want to tell me what happened?"

He sighs sadly and opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. He tries several more times before he is finally able to answer."My parents kicked me out." It is barely more than a whisper, but I still hear him.

"What? Why?" I ask him.

His voice is a little stronger when he says,"Well, it was mainly my dad, but my mom didn't say anything at all, so that's not really any better. You see, I wasn't planning on coming out until after college. I'm only able to be here because of my wrestling scholarship and I thought it would be a problem for the other guys on the wrestling team, but after getting together with Brock I found out that none of them cared. Apparently close to half of them are bisexual, so me liking dudes wasn't an issue. I didn't even consider that the one that would have a problem would be my dad. I was going to hold off for a little while, you know, see if things with Brock played out or not because if I'm not with a guy, I didn't see a point in saying anything. But when Brock called me this afternoon sounding so dejected about not being able to come to see me, I couldn't take it. So I sat my folks down and told them. My dad just stared at me disgustedly before calmly telling me to pack my crap and he'd drive me back to the campus that taught me that it was ok to be a fairy. I tried to talk to him, but he ignored me. My mom just sat there crying. He dropped me off here about 30 minutes ago. I'm sorry to put all of this on you, but I didn't know what else to do." His voice cracks on the last word. He hasn't even realized we've been parked on the street in front of my house for the past 15 minutes, but I hadn't wanted to interrupt him.

"Like I said, it wasn't a problem. I'm really sorry that they did that to you, but my parents are cool. My mom's best friend is gay, and they both love him, so you don't have to worry about hiding who you are while you are here. They won't mind you staying here on the weekends, either. We will have to share my bed though. It's just a two bedroom house and the couch is way too small. Don't worry though, My bed is a king size so there will be plenty of room." I reassure him. "I swear I won't even try to cop a feel."

Brandon snorts out a laugh. "Yeah, alright. I can't promise the same though."

"Hands off buddy or I'll sic Ivy on you again." I joke.

His face pales. "Nah man, I was just messing with you! Don't even play about that. Your girl is scary. She threatened to feed me to wild animals. While I was still alive."

"Well, as long as you continue being a decent person, I doubt she will follow through." I chuckle. I knew she had scared him, but dang. Suddenly I realize something that I should have put together earlier. Brandon is Brock's mate. Well, that is pretty cool I guess. It will be something else for us to bond over when Brock finally decides to tell him. No way will I be the one to drop that bomb.

Brandon grabs his bag and follows me up into my house. My parents are already in bed so we go straight to my room. I grab some pajamas before going to the bathroom and changing. When I come back out, Brandon is already in bed sound asleep. I get in on the other side and immediately feel the long day catching up with me. I fall asleep almost instantly.

I wake up the next morning unable to breathe. My eyes fly open to find Brandon laying almost completely on top of me. "Dude, get off of me." I wheeze out. Nothing. I push up as hard as I can and am finally able to get a knee between us. I try to raise my leg to leverage him off of me, but I admittedly feel kind of bad when my foot slips and comes into sharp contact with his family jewels.

"Eeep." He squeaks out as he practically flies off of me while reaching a hand down to cup his goods. He just lays there for a minute with his eyes scrunched up before turning to me with a glare. "Bro! Why are you trying to unman me?"

I grimace, "Um... I wasn't? I didn't mean to. I was just trying to get your big butt off of me. This is your fault if you really think about it." I say.

Before I can blink, Brandon shoves me off the bed where I land face down. He immediately follows after me before wrenching my left arm behind my back with one hand while shoving my face into my carpet with the other. He snickers when it is clear that I can't escape, "Say you're sorry."

"I'm sorry! Come on man, it was an accident." I spit out. He gets off of me with another shove of my head. All of a sudden I get a great idea. "Hey," I start as I get off of the floor. "Do you think you could teach me some of your wrestling moves?" 

"Um..."He scratches his head. " Sure, I guess. I'm not busy today."

I rub my hands together excitedly. Get ready for me Emersyn, it's about to be on.