🎵 Caleb

Nathanial continues to surprise me.

One second he's telling me how much a virgin he is and the next second he's laughing and lip syncing "Fireworks" by Katy Perry in the crowd while we watch drag queens perform in TD Square.

Okay, it took a couple coolers to get him loosened up but hey, it worked!

The energy was lively as we swayed and laughed amongst the crowd. Honestly, I haven't seen this side of Nathanial in so long. Not since we were young and hanging out alone, just me and him.

My heart hurt thinking about how much fun we use to have when we were close. He was my other half. We were so different but we just... worked.

It's like he knew what I needed to say before I said it and I knew what he needed to do before he did it. I don't know. Only we truly knew.

I shook my head to get the thoughts out. That was a long time ago, and this is now. Present Nathanial doesn't like being around me for very long because I stole his girl.

Oh right! Sarah!

"Check your phone!" I yelled over the music.

"What??" He asked. Turning his black baseball cap around on his head, he leaned in closer to me so he could hear me more clearly. I couldn't help but take in the scent of him. He was like a mixture between pine, apples and something sweet. Something just him. Fuck. He smelt so good.

I swallowed harshly. "Check your phone. Sarah!" I pointed at his front pocket. He gasped like he just remembered too.

"Right, right!" He laughed handing me his drink. It was nice seeing him carefree like this. I can't believe we haven't checked our phones in so long. It was already midday at this point. Totally slipped our minds.

"Fuck!" He said looking down at his phone.

"What is it?!"

"She uploaded a story an hour ago. She was at a restaurant for lunch." He tilted his phone so I could see. She was sitting in a booth and took a snap of her calamari. Damnit, I love calamari.

"An hour ago... she might've already left but how about we still try?" I shrugged. Nathanial nodded his head and proceeded to follow my lead out of the crowd.

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The restaurant wasn't far from where we were which was the kicker of it all. It was a small gastropub nearby. Honestly, it was nice to get out of the heat.

Nathanial and I walked in and immediately started looking around. The bar was small and rather crowded but it was clear that Sarah wasn't here.

"Hi! Table for two?" A small brunette girl walked up to us with two menus. She was gorgeous with pink, blue and purple eyeshadow on her eyelids.

"Uh..." I looked at Nathanial who shrugged his shoulder at me.

"We might as well. I'm starving."

I nodded my head and we followed the girl to a nearby booth.

"It's annoying we missed her." I muttered sitting into the booth.

"Ah, that's okay. It's nice to know she's around anyways." He shrugged.

I nodded my head. This morning was so much fun - I can't believe it slipped my mind to look at her story. I wonder if Nathanial was upset we missed her. But he didn't seem upset at all. Honestly, he seemed really relaxed. More relaxed than I've ever seen him.

"That was fun." I decided to test the waters and see how he felt.

He picked up the menu and started looking it over. "I'm feeling a burger. How about you?" He ignored me.

I rolled my eyes before the server greeted us at the table taking in our orders. We both decided to order a cocktail called "Fuzzy Azz" because we simply just had to. It's the occasion.

"Damn, Nathanial. I never knew you were so adventurous and open." I laughed.

"What do you mean by that? I've always been like this." He gave me a confused look.

"Oh come on. You ordered chicken fingers and fries last night at one of the most expensive hotels in the city. You stayed with the same girl for four-"

"Okay, okay. Can we stop bringing that up please? It's a little awkward." He laughed.

"How? So we're both chasing after the same girl. It happens." I shrugged giving him a wink.

He shook his head and laughed it off. The server returned with our drinks and I watched and laughed as Nathanial blushed at the sight of his big round glass filled with a peach slushie drink. Topped with a skewer of fuzzy peaches, the candy.

"Oh come on, this is amazing" I laughed taking a sip.

"You're really comfortable with all of this gay stuff aren't you?" He laughed taking a sip of his own.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked around. "As cliché as it sounds - love is love. It doesn't really get more complicated than that. It shouldn't anyways."

"But it does... get complicated...sometimes." Nathanial blurted. He clearly didn't think before he said that because his cheeks immediately turned pink. I watched as he awkwardly took a sip of his drink.

"Yeah... I guess sometimes..."

"So, what did you mean when you said that Sarah was into... particular stuff in bed?" Nathanial asked.

My smile crept on my face. I couldn't help but laugh. That's what he was curious about?

"I thought you didn't want to know?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I just want to see if our experiences match up"

"Sarah likes how I dirty talk." I didn't want to beat around the bush.

Nathanial's eyes widened at that. "You... talk dirty."

"I like to do many different things. Depending on who I'm with anyways. It changes but dirty talk was definitely one of Sarah's favorites."

Nathanial nodded his head and looked around the restaurant clearly thinking this over.

"Yeah, no we didn't do that." He smiled.

I leaned over and took another long sip of my drink.

"What's your thing then?" I asked. I bit my lip. That question may be a lot for him. I wouldn't want to scare him off.

He looked back at me. His deep green eyes piercing me straight to my core. I took a sharp breathe in.

"A thing?" He asked.

"Everyone has a thing." I folded my hands on the table.

"I don't think I do."

"You just haven't found it yet." I bit in my lower lip and watched as his gaze travelled down to where my teeth sunk in. He always watched me doing the smallest of movements.

It made my heart beat faster knowing that he was so transfixed on what I was doing. He also did that. It's like I was a foreign object to him he was always trying to figure out. It was addicting. Reminded me of the rush I felt when being on stage.

"So what's yours?" He breathed. His eyes linking back up to mine. "What's your...thing?"

I leaned back in my booth. I looked him over, wondering if I should lay some cards out on the table or not.

"I like it a little rough." He finally stated. His face twisted up at my words.

"You're into like... bondage and stuff?"

"No," I laughed. "I like being lightly choked. Maybe bitten a little bit. My nipples..." I shook my head. "Dude, why are we talking about this?"

He laughed back. "Yeah, I'm not too sure."

As if on queue, our food arrived to the table. We were starving so it took us no time at all to dive in.

"For what it's worth, I think those are the kind of things you should figure out for yourself. It's nice to know what you're into. Plus, it's really fun to find out." I said popping a fry into my mouth.

Nathanial looked me over and nodded before taking another bite of his burger.

I guess that was that. I only wished that wasn't the last time we visited that conversation.