“Come onnnnn, Connor.” Steve shifted to another tactic, using his bright, blue puppy dog eyes against him. “Maybe you can pull that stick out of your ass if you get something else in it, you know what I mean?” By any means necessary, huh? Is it really that urgent of a mission to abolish my virginity?”Įric took a long drink of the bottle in his hand. “And anyway, it’s not like my dating pool is anywhere near the size of yours in the middle of rural Illinois.” “Um, okay, well I’m twenty one, so,” he slipped out from under his hold, “I mean, I don’t think that’s such a ridiculous age to not… you know.” He averted his eyes, the tips of his ears burning hot under their snickering. “You thought we were just going to let you die a virgin?” Steve teased, throwing an absurdly heavy arm around his shoulders. Connor was never any good at making friends. Three years should have been plenty of time to cut them loose and find his own way in the world, maybe into a group of real friends for once in his life, who actually understood him and liked the same things as him and could hold an intelligent conversation without their brains short circuiting.īit of an unfortunate thing about that, though. He couldn’t come up with much of an excuse as to why he kept them around after high school. Unless, he just so happened to have an unlikely pair of giant, football-playing lugs flanking him in the hallway. Friendship may have been a bit of a strong word for it, honestly, but Connor embraced it when he had reached high school and quickly learned that having certain mannerisms, certain interests or lack thereof, resulted in cruel teenage boys making his life a living hell. Their dads had been family friends growing up, so Connor was sort of grandfathered into the obligatory friendship as they grew up. One that Connor had kept around far too long, he was quickly realizing. He didn’t have to wonder, because the answer was quite simple if not unsatisfactory. He found himself wondering, for what had to be the millionth time, why he had decided to keep their company. “Room 304.”Ĭonnor stared at the pair of them, slack jawed and entirely unamused. “Go see for yourself.” Eric gestured toward the door of their hotel room with a half-empty bottle of wine. “You’re joking,” Connor said out loud, which only served to fuel whatever dumpster fire of amusement was flaming between them. Because it definitely didn’t feel like a joke anymore as they dangled a hotel key in front of him, watching expectantly with twin, dopey smiles.
Though, now, he was questioning why he would ever make the mistake of underestimating Steve and Eric’s propensity for the insane. Connor had been quite sure that it was never meant to spiral any further than that.