Truly His | (Book 2) 18+

two

HAYDEN
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Spending an hour to style my hair because it was Jake's "mandatory accessories" was an hour that went to waste. During the first half hour of my shift, all my running around made my hair fall out of place and get all messy again. All Jake said was "get some better gel, idiot" and walked off to help a customer.

Amazing uncle, I know.

"Your pits are looking a little moist there, bud," one of my friends, Ashton, said as I handed him his third double-stack burger. I glared at him. "That affects my tip to you."

"How?" I asked with a slight chuckle, grabbing his empty glass and filling it with more water.

"Your sweat could have gone in my drink."

"That's impossible, you're just being a know-it-all bastard." I handed him the glass and grabbed his empty plate. "You got any plans tonight or you spending the night at Carson's again?"

Ashton shrugged, taking a bite of his pizza to avoid answering.

I didn't blame him. A few months ago, his parents, who are heavily christian, found out that Ash was gay after one of their friends from church caught him with his boyfriend. Immediately, they kicked him out. They held no room for arguing and told him that they were not going to allow a "sinner" in their house, and literally opened the door for him on the way out.

He tried for years to convince himself that he wasn't gay but, in the end, he stumbled into my place completely hammered and spilled everything out to me. It was the first time I had seen Ashton break down in front of me because I knew how well he could always keep himself composed in front of people; he was always a distant guys when it came to emotions and would either sleep it off or take his anger out through workouts at the gym.

When he knew that I wasn't judging him for it, he cried even more. The poor guy had so much going on, trying so hard to hide who he really was from the fear of his parents disapproving, and I knew that. He was my closest friend, too, and who the fuck would I be to turn my back to him because of his sexuality?

Ashton stayed at my place for the first month but eventually left because he felt like a burden. Plus, he didn't want to make it seem like he was just at my place because of the name my family had given itself. With Ashton still needing another year of school before graduating, he didn't want my parents to keep him in our house even after while I was gone.

When Ashton left, he ended up at our friend Carson's. Carson had his own two-bedroom apartment and had recently lost his roommate, so Ash had been there ever since and was paying half of the rent.

"You think your ma will let me stay the night?" He asked me, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Of course, why?" I asked. "You and Carson have a fight again?"

Ashton snorted. "Not this time. He's out at a party and I don't want to be there when he gets home—he'll almost definitely bringing some chick home."

I chuckled. "You have her number, just let her know. Jake would beat my ass if he saw me standing around doing nothi—"

"Hayden Anderson Black," he called from behind me, making me wince at the anger in his voice. I slowly turned to him, ignoring Ashton's laughter, "don't make me drag your ass into the back."