The Little Things [Book 1]

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Last Man

Thomas cracked his neck and then moved around his shoulders, hearing cracking sound from most of his joints. There were slight fabric burns on his wrists, which he was rubbing, as he waited for Mark to return. When he did return, he was holding onto an ice pack and a glass of water. He handed Thomas the glass of water and then placed the ice pack on Thomas's wrists.

"That should help ease the burning. You should have told me if it was too tight," Mark said.

"It wasn't! It wasn't too tight. I... I liked it," Thomas responded, his voice fading more and more with each word that fell from his lips. Mark, who sat opposite of him, smiled and lowered his gaze.

"You did?" he muttered in question. He had heard how Thomas had moaned and begged for more. He was aware that Thomas had liked giving up control. But it was different actually hearing the words fall from his lips.

Thomas hummed in agreement and he eased back against the metal headboard. A flash of pain went through him and his face contorted. Mark leaned in with worry lacing his features.

"Are you okay?" he asked, reaching out and softly touching Thomas's forearm.

"Yes, you just kind of... it hurts... to sit," he replied through gritted teeth. Mark struggled to stifle a laugh, but eventually, he gave in. Thomas pushed him back. "You wouldn't be laughing if you knew".

"You can fuck me if you want to," Mark replied with a shrug.

"Really? But I thought you only liked to top..." Thomas asked. Again, Mark shrugged.

"I've only bottomed once, and I didn't hate it. I just prefer doing the fucking".

Thomas bit his lower lip in thought. The next question that circled his mind was eating him up, but he wasn't sure whether it would be okay to ask Mark. It's none of my business, he thought just before he opened his mouth.

"How many people have you had sex with?" his tone made him cringe and quickly looked away. "I mean, how often have you done this?"

"This? You mean sex, aftercare, or bondage?"

Thomas cleared his throat, embarrassed by Mark's dryness. "All of the above?" he said in a questioning tone.

"I've had sex with three people -other than you-, Sam, Jack, and William. It was Jack who told me about aftercare, so he and William. As for bondage... Jack and William -well, not so much with William, but yeah..." Mark said and fell with his back on the mattress, not taking his eyes from Thomas.

"I had thought..." Thomas bit his words and frowned. I had thought you had had sex with more people. He shook his head and huffed. "You told me before about having slept with Sam... and how she helped you figure out your sexuality... what did you-"

"What did I mean by that? Well, as I told you last time, I started to realize I was gay when I started feeling things for Reese. Sam was already my best friend so I told her almost immediately, and she tried to help me hide my feelings so that I wouldn't ruin my friendship with him. I'm not sure what we were talking about, but I thought about experimenting with a girl -you know because you shouldn't knock it till you try it-. Sam was there and she was happy to help. So, we had sex. And I came thinking of Reese... and I ended up crying in her arms till sunrise".

"Reese knows you're gay now... how did you come out to him? Does he know you liked him?"

Mark looked up at the ceiling and laughed to himself. "He knows I liked him. That's how I came out to him, by saying I liked him. God, coming out to him was way more terrifying than telling my parents!" He rubbed his face with his palms and threw his arms above his head. "We were at a party -that's how all bad stories start, isn't it? We were at this party and that was around the same time where we started hanging out with Angela, but she and Reese weren't dating just yet. And back then, Angela had a thing for me. Honestly, I had no idea that Reese liked her, so as we were having fun, I started dancing with her and she sort of tried to kiss me".

"Reese got angry?" Thomas guessed. Mark bit his lower lip and shook his head.

"He was upset, but he wasn't angry. She tried to kiss me more than once that night, but as we were dancing, when I pulled back I kind of pushed her back a little too hard and that's when he got angry. You know Reese's into MMA row, right? Well, back then he was only into kick-boxing and he pinned me down telling me how what I had done wasn't okay, and how I should apologize to her, and how I should have just told her I wasn't interested from the beginning because it's not okay to ignore someone's feelings especially when they are your friend". Mark paused to sit up and stretch out. "Wanna go down to the library?" he asked, interrupting his story, and stood up.

"If you help me... and if you finish the story... then yes," Thomas replied with a smile. Mark extended his hand.

"Deal," he said and helped Thomas up.

They started walking down, in silence and Thomas followed Mark into the library. It was a fairly small room -considering the size of the whole house-. Three walls were covered in bookshelves, all filled with books, and the fourth wall was made entirely out of glass, overlooking the back garden. In the middle of the room sat a velvet sofa that looked way too comfortable.

"So, Reese was pinning me down," Mark started again, as he sat down on the sofa and pulled Thomas on his lap. "And maybe it was the exhaustion or the beers that I might have drunk or you know, the gay frustration, but as I sat there with him on me, telling me about ignoring a friend's feelings I just started laughing and told him that he did the exact same thing to me".

"You said that in front of everyone?!" Thomas exclaimed and groaned as he wiggled in Mark's arms. Mark nodded and huffed.

"Not one of my finest moments..." he agreed. Thomas laughed and hid his face in the crook of Mark's neck.

"So, what happened after that?"

"We didn't talk for a month," Mark dryly replied. "Well, it wasn't exactly Reese's fault. It only took him a couple of hours to grasp –the news that is- but as I had come out to everyone that night word got around and Reese's parents ended up hearing it too..." Mark let his head drop back until it rested against the sofa's back. "They didn't want us to talk or hang out anymore. I don't know what they thought I would do to him, but up to this day they still don't want us to have sleepovers."

Thomas pressed his lips against Mark's neck and inhaled deeply. Mark still smelled of sweat and Thomas realized he had gotten pretty addicted to the smell. Just like he had gotten addicted to seeing Mark's eyes roll back and hearing his grunts of enjoyment as he came.

They stayed like for what felt like forever. One of Mark's hands was tangled in Thomas's hair, going through the brown waves and softly scratching the skin, while his other hand was on Thomas's exposed thigh, moving up and down, drawing lines with his fingertips. While Mark had put on sweatpants, Thomas hadn't had the will to put anything over his boxer briefs and chose to stay like that. Neither wore shirts, as they hadn't felt the need to put them on.

That's why Thomas immediately jumped up when the doorbell rang, not caring about the fact that it hurt him to move that fast. They shared a look and walked to the hall, Thomas being closer to the stairs.

"I should go get dressed," Thomas muttered and was about to walk upstairs.

"Wait," Mark stopped him and looked outside through the peephole. He pulled back with a frown, and without saying anything to Thomas, who stood on the first step of the staircase, opened the door.

"Mark!" he yelled out but shut up once he saw who stood on the other side of the door.

"Jack?" Mark asked, ignoring Thomas, with his jaw slacking.

Lo and behold, Jack Ashton Cooper stood before him, with a duffle bag, bright green hair and the brightest smile Mark had ever seen on him.

"Hi there, Mark!" Jack said. Mark had frozen in place, but when Thomas cleared his throat he snapped and turned to look at him.

"I should go get dressed..." Thomas said, repeating his words from earlier and that's when Jack finally noticed him in the house.

"Thomas Heissmann..." he muttered in disbelief. Slowly, he started noticing more things, like how neither wore much clothing, how they both looked ruffled, and how Thomas seemed to be covered in hickeys. "Oh..."