They decided to use age to determine the order of who got to take their shot first, which meant Bailey got to go, then Nate, Jared, and, finally, Sarah. Bailey got a hole-in-one.

"Bailey knows how to find the hole," Jared chuckled, elbowing Nate. Despite himself, Nate flushed. Bailey smirked and pranced to the next hole to watch them take their shots. He scribbled in his notebook as Nate took his shot. He got it in two tries, which he thought was very respectable, despite all the innuendos about his ability to find the hole and advice to change his grip on the shaft.

"Jesus," he grumbled, going to stand beside Bailey, "If we use up all our puns on the first hole, where will that leave us?"

"Aw," Bailey hit him on the arm. "You're young enough that you can get it up again. This is just to take the edge off."

Nate raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

Bailey got a hole-in-one the second time, and the third. Nate was glad they decided not to take turns making shots, because he and Jared would be left behind on hole five while Bailey and Sarah were already on the way to dinner.

"Damn, you handled those humps well," Jared called out to Sarah, who bowed with a flourish after her shot. He leaned into Nate and said in a lower voice, "I'm really glad they decided on this innuendo thing instead of, like, hustling us at mini golf. Who the hell is this good?"

"Bailey said it was a family thing," Nate said, watching him line up for his shot at the next hole. "Trying to bond after their parents married type of thing that actually worked between him and Sarah. I guess I can see now how they bonded."

"You better respect that hole, Bailey," Sarah advised as she watched him adjust his aim. He smirked at her, then refocused.

Jared shook his head in amazement, "My brother and I just punch each other. That's kinda how you are Karlie are too, aren't you?"

"I mean...no, not really," Nate said. "She never really liked boxing. But we certainly don't go mini-golfing together."

Bailey's ball rolled just slightly past the hole, which sent everyone into an uproar because it was only the second time he missed his first shot. He got it on the second and Nate stepped up to place his ball on the tee.

"So, Bailey," Sarah called, tapping her club on the toe of her shoe. "How's the search for a roommate going?"

"I'm thinking about taking out some loans to pay for a dorm room," Bailey said, the scowl plain in his voice.

Nate took a deep breath and tried to focus on aiming. There were a bunch of little hills that the ball had to roll through in order to get to its destination, which meant trying to aim was probably useless, and he should just attempt to get it past the hills on his first try.

"You hated the dorms your freshman year, though," Sarah said.

"Yeah, well, at least I had time to do my homework instead of having to work all the time to pay rent."

If he could just goddamn concentrate, maybe he could think about how to aim the ball. The only thing he could think about was how he wanted to blurt out that Bailey didn't have to worry about rent, because he could take care of it for him, even with a starting salary. It wouldn't be luxurious, but it would be better than a dorm room. He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead before it dripped into his eye.

"What's so bad about living in the dorms?" Jared asked. "Isn't that where all the fun is?"

"Haha, no way," Bailey laughed. "The dorms sucked. All the fun is at off-campus parties."

Nate frowned and just whacked the ball, hoping for the best.

It skipped across the hills and rolled past the hole into the rock behind it. Nate sighed. But, on the rebound, it rolled directly for the hole and miraculously plopped inside.

"Ooohhh!" Jared threw his arms and club up in the air, startling the family ahead of them. "Nate sneaking it in the back door."

Bailey chuckled and ducked his head to mark that onto his tally. Nate threw an apologetic glance at the family, who, albeit a bit more tensely, returned the gesture. Thankfully, their kids were wholly fascinated by the looming plastic dragon feature and probably too young to understand any of the innuendos.

The group of boys sniggering a few holes behind them was not too young. In fact, Nate realized as he looked at them closer that he recognized them from school. He wasn't sure if they were from the same grade as him, but he'd definitely seen their faces in the halls, so they were probably around the same age.

He wondered if they were surprised to see him and Bailey hanging out together. Or maybe they did not recognize them at all. They were a pretty notorious pair, but that did not mean everybody knew who they were. When he caught one of their eyes and gave them a nod, the guy turned away without acknowledging him. Well, okay then. He turned away without giving them another thought and went to retrieve his ball.

The rest of the game proceeded in about the same manner. Even though he was only tracking his score, Nate could tell that Bailey and Sarah were kicking his and Jared's butts. The innuendos flowed steadily despite his worry that they would all be used up on the first hole. Although they did get a bit repetitive. Bailey started wagging his finger and not giving people points when he deemed it too close to something already said.

In the end, Nate lost both the golf and innuendo games.

"It's alright," Bailey patted him on the shoulder as they turned in their balls and clubs. "You have a lot on your mind."

Oh boy, he did not even know the half of it.

"I'm gonna hit the head before we go over to the restaurant, if that's okay," Bailey said, patting him one more time before wandering out of the little rental office to go to the bathrooms on the back of the building.

Sarah meandered after him, which presented the perfect opportunity for Jared to face Nate head-on and accuse, "You haven't talked to him about moving in together yet, have you?"

"Jared," Nate ran a hand over his face, grimacing when his palm just smeared sweat down his nose. It was too hot out. They should have gone to a nice air-conditioned movie theatre or something where nobody would have talked to each other. But seeing Bailey laugh so much and preen when he was good at something had also been nice.

"I'm just saying..."

"I was going to bring it up tonight," Nate cut him off. "It's just...we've never even put a label on it, you know? And I'm just out of the blue going to ask to live together?"

"Nate," Jared said in the exact same tone Nate had used to say his name. "You two have practically lived in each other's laps this summer. It was like...one day you hated each other, and the next you were soulmates. I think gradual doesn't suit you anyway. Just ask him."

"I'm going to," Nate stressed, "tonight. After dinner. Where you are going to keep your mouth shut about it."

"Yeah, yeah," Jared waved him off, brightening when he saw Sarah coming back through the door for them.

"Bailey didn't come back yet?" She asked. Her hair was now swept up into a high ponytail, keeping it away from the back of her neck, which made Nate feel cooler just looking at her. The inside of the mini golf office was air conditioned, but the doors were thrown open, so he could still feel the muggy humidity. He wondered if the kid manning the rental counter was supposed to let all that a/c out like that. Then he wondered when he started thinking like his parents.

"Well, I saw about four cars pull up and go into the restaurant," Sarah told them. "So, it might be a good idea for someone to go over and grab a table."

Jared shrugged and glanced at Nate, "We can go over, if you want to wait for Bailey."

"Yeah, okay," Nate waved them off and turned toward the a/c unit. Jared and Sarah had to turn sideways to walk through the doors as the group of boys that had been behind them on the course piled inside. They handed over their clubs and balls, elbowing each other and laughing and teasing one of the guys who had been particularly terrible. Nate stepped a little closer to the wall to get out of their way and glanced at the kid behind the counter, who looked affronted by all the boisterousness.

On the way out, one called back to him, "See you later, loser."

His tone made it clear that it was not a friendly barb, but instead like something out of a Hollywood-scripted bully's mouth. But the boy just rolled his eyes and returned to the book he'd been reading as if he could care less. His eyes caught Nate watching him, though.

"Idiots," he huffed, "They think people still care about high-school bullshit like that."

"Like being called a loser?"

"Mhmm," he opened his book and shook his head. "Didn't matter to me then, doesn't matter to me now. Hopefully soon they realize that being on top of the adolescent food chain doesn't count for much anymore, especially since being on the baseball team didn't even get them a scholarship, let alone help them go pro."

Nate snorted. The baseball players were some of his least favorite guys back in high school. And not just because Tanner, their ringleader, had been dating Bailey. Well, that was probably a large part of it, even if he could not admit that to himself back then.

"Glad you don't let them get to you," he said. The kid made an eh face, then looked down at his book. Nate turned to face the a/c for a little while longer, until he started to feel a chill on his skin where he was wet from sweat. Gross. Hopefully, the restaurant would not be too cold. He kind of hated the sensation of being too cold once he'd cooled down after sweating a lot.

Maybe he could talk Bailey into showering with him before or after they talked tonight. Before would be best. That way if Bailey threw him out, he would have had one last shower with him. It had kind of become one of his favorite activities in the world.

Speaking of Bailey, he had been gone a long time. Nate went out the door into the muggy heat before he stopped to think about what he was doing. It was probably weird for him to check on Bailey. What if he was busy taking a massive dump? Or maybe he was rolling himself a joint before going to eat.

Nate forced himself to stand on the sidewalk for a solid thirty seconds before he decided it wouldn't be too strange if he had to take a piss as well. A good enough excuse for his behavior. Behavior that had him feeling a little bit insane and too controlling. He was just on edge after their play earlier in the week, and worried that he was going to lose Bailey soon, maybe even tonight.

Probably not tonight, you overthinker, a voice in his mind that suspiciously sounded like Jared told him.

He rounded the corner of the building and paused, listening to the voices coming from the men's room. One of them was Bailey's, low and furious. Instantly, Nate was back in the hallway of the high school, passing by the boy's room and listening to some prick insult Bailey while Bailey snapped right back. Before he could hear the echo of Bailey's head knocking into the wall, though, he barreled into the bathroom to see what the hell was going on.

A guy stood between him and Bailey, which also placed him between Bailey and the door. Nate took in his short-cropped hair and ball cap and knew exactly who it was before he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Tanner. Who rolled his eyes at the sight of Nate bristling in the doorway. Bold of him.

But Nate had been in nearly this exact situation before. One time, with a bully and Bailey in the bathroom. The other time, he interrupted the last confrontation (that he was aware of) between Tanner and Bailey. In one of those situations, he had been decidedly not welcomed, and in the other, he had been...well, not exactly welcome, but able to diffuse the situation without Bailey spitting blood in his face, at least.

He wasn't sure how this time was about to go down as he looked between Tanner and Bailey and growled, "What the fuck?"

A/N: Welp...