When I first got the invitation, I dismissed it out of hand. I had no interest in going. I hadn’t liked high school much when I’d actually attended, though I hadn’t had an overly bad experience, and I was barely friends with anyone I’d been friends with then. Social media was the only interaction I had with them these days. It had been ten years, and I had no desire to relive it.
But then I heard the rumors.
Nick had been a god in high school. Beautiful and perfect, with startling deep blue eyes and dark hair. He’d been on the cross country team and was ridiculously fit. And he’d been kind and charming. He was everyone’s friend, and just a genuinely nice guy. I’d spent all of junior and senior years with a crush so hard my heart pounded and I turned bright red every time I saw him. Our circles had intersected a little–friends of my friends were friends with his friends–so we’d interacted sometimes outside of classes. Though I always became a tongue tied mess, Nick never seemed to notice. Not my awkwardness, and not my insane crush. I was okay with him not noticing, because I would rather be invisible to the straight, perfect jock, then for him to tease or worse, show me revulsion. I was happy to admire him from afar.
So when the rumors started to circulate and make it onto my feeds and timelines, I paid attention. It seemed Nick had recently come out of the closet. I never suspected it back then, though my teenage heart wished for it fervently. I dismissed it at first, not wanting to get my hopes up. But then someone retweeted his tweet, and I had confirmation.
Suddenly that invitation to the reunion was appealing. Because I wanted to see him.
The ballroom at the hotel was packed. Our gradating class had been almost four hundred. Even though I was sure not everyone had shown up, adding in spouses and significant others, and the numbers swelled again. Everything was decorated in shades of black and gold. It was just this side of tacky but knowing who was in charge of the reunion, I wasn’t surprised in the least. I had no problems ignoring the decor, and I headed right for the bar to grab a drink and unobtrusively mingle.
And watch for Nick.
I was surprised to find, after an hour or so, that I was actually enjoying myself. Not the most fun I’d ever had but it wasn’t unbearable. I’d landed on the outskirts of a group of people I’d hung out with back then, and was listening with half an ear as the conversation swirled around me. I periodically scanned the crowd, making mental notes of who looked better, worse, or the same. It was interesting how many people I actually recognized. I was so lost in my mental game that when I spotted him, my body reacted to hot guy first before I recognized it was him.
Quickly I excused myself from the conversation I’d been peripherally involved in and made a beeline for the bar. The last ten years had been kind to him and he was even more gorgeous than I remembered. Those piercing blue eyes locked on mine as I approached, and then went hooded as he took me in, his gaze sweeping from head to toe. I tried not to preen as I saw the appreciation in his eyes. And because I was focused on those deep blue eyes, I saw the moment recognition dawned. He almost choked on the swallow of beer, and he coughed as he tried to get his breathing back.
“Avery? Is that you?” he asked, disbelief in his tone. “Holy shit! You look fantastic!”
For a moment, I was the chubby, insecure seventeen year old I’d once been. My heart started to pound and my palms started to sweat. I couldn’t believe he recognized me, and I never imagined he would remember my name. I’d changed a lot in the intervening years. I’d worked hard to shed the pounds, to get fit and toned and to stay that way. That he noticed, and liked what he saw, was a bit of a shock. But to be appreciated by this gorgeous man, someone I still thought of occasionally, felt incredibly good.
I made a split second decision, shedding the insecurities, and deciding to go for it. I turned up my most charming smile, the one that got me laid when I went out looking for a hook-up, and leaned into his space just a little.
“Hey, Nick,” I said, letting my voice drop into the lower register. I swiped my tongue across my bottom lip. “You look as amazing as always.”
He swallowed, and I watched as the lust blew his pupils. Then he took a step closer to me so that I had to tilt my head back a bit to keep his gaze. He looked me over again.
“It’s really good to see you,” he said, sounding just a little breathless. “I had wondered if you were going to be here.”
My heart gave a stuttering thump, and a grin stretched my lips.
“I wasn’t going to show, but then I heard about you,” I admitted, laying it all on the line. I was reasonably sure that my advances weren’t going to be dismissed. “I wanted to see my high school crush again.”
He inhaled sharply, and his gaze dropped to my mouth.
“You had a crush on me?” His voice was barely a murmur.
“So hard,” I answered suggestively.
Nick took that final step into my space. We were so close that every time we inhaled, our chests touched. He licked his lips as his gaze remained fixed on my face. He took deep breath, and then leaned down to speak in my ear. “Want to get out of here and go get coffee or something?”
“Or something,” I agreed, angling my body so my semi-hard dick brushed against his hip.
Nick gave a shiver as he stepped back, then grabbed my hand and practically yanked me after him.
I couldn’t stop grinning.
Kris T. Bethke--Author of M/M Romance 