Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (9 page)

“You want to come up for a bit before Ivan gets back?” Trent asked Julie as we got close to the dorm.

“Nah. I should let you get to sleep since you’ve been through a lot today.”

“Awwww.” Trent briefly made a sad puppy face and when that didn’t work, he changed tactics. “Walk you home, then?”

“That would be nice.” They snuggled closer as we walked.

“Julie, it was great seeing you tonight,” I said as we arrived at the dorm.

“You, too. Have a good night, guys.” She gave Alex and I quick pecks on the cheek.

“Later, Trent, Julie,” Alex called out.

“Awesome day,” I said as we walked into the building.

“Yeah,” he said. “The win. A relaxing party.” We bounced up the four flights of stairs in no time. “When we start having parties, I want ones like that. Easy to talk to people. Good mood music. No one being obnoxious. I’m actually not sure how they pulled that off.”

“Are we going to be entertaining people?”

“Maybe. Should we?”

I chuckled. “I have no idea. We’ve never thrown a party. We rarely have people in the room. We usually go somewhere else.”

“Oh my God,” he said, sounding melodramatic, “we’re going to suck at being adults because we’ve always lived in the dorm. What’re we going to do?” As we got to the fourth floor, he spun me around to face him and grabbed the collar of my coat. He shook me vigorously. “We’re going to fail.”

I laughed, loudly, as he continued to shake me, which led him to laughing. He finally pulled me into him and planted a big kiss on my lips. We were both hungry for this. It’d been a crazy week and there hadn’t been much fooling around because we tended to curl up next to each other and quickly fall asleep.

“Come on,” I said, pulling him by his jacket. I got my keys out with my right hand, while dragging Alex with my left.

“Oooh. I recognize that tone of voice.”

While I unlocked the door, Alex nibbled at my neck, getting me hornier than I already was. The door released, and we practically fell into the room but managed to stay upright thanks to our hockey balancing skills. I kicked the door closed with my foot and yanked his jacket off. He pulled on my sweatshirt, but without my coat off it didn’t go far. We kept kissing urgently, but we weren’t making progress with the clothes.

I finally stepped back to lose the jacket. “Get naked,” I growled.

“Oh, yes, sir.”

It said a lot about us that as we stripped, we kept the room tidy. We were hurrying, but things ended up in the hamper or hung up. It didn’t take long for us to be naked, and back to the kissing.

The energy was insane. It was like it was our first time, but also like we knew
exactly
what we were doing. My need for him was off the chart. We kept rearranging ourselves, which electrified me as different parts of him brushed against different parts of me. We swallowed our moans as our mouths wouldn’t be separated.

Without warning, Alex lifted me off the floor. I wrapped my legs around him as he walked us to the bed. He’d never done this before and it was hot. He lowered me down gently and brought himself down on top of me.

The kisses were fiery, with an energy unlike anything we’d had before. It wasn’t like we hadn’t kissed this week. We kissed all the time. This was more. It was passion mixed with lust, mixed with pent-up horniness, fused together with a lot of love.

The kissing continued as we rolled around on the bed, wrapped around each other, hands going all over. Our
usual
sex was kissing for around five minutes before we shifted into whatever we were going to do, which would go on for twenty minutes, sometimes more. We were well past five minutes on the kissing and I was in no hurry for it to stop.

Alex’s energy was primal, yet romantic and it fueled me. I kneaded my way down his back and his butt, feeling his muscles. We grinded against each other, which sent bursts of intense pleasure out from my cock. He responded, bucking against me harder.

Alex pulled back from the kisses and looked at me. He was extra gorgeous with some weekend scruff. He usually rocked the styled preppy look, while I was the full-time bearded one who rarely used product in my hair. He was overdue for a haircut and he hadn’t shaved in a couple days. He was adorable.

His eyes locked on mine and the electricity flowing between us continued to escalate. His gaze always affected me, but it was like seeing his soul laid bare. I ran my fingers along the side of his face and smiled, which got me a smile back.

“I love you,” I said, craning my head up to brush his lips with mine. “My God, you’re extra hot tonight.”

He licked across my mouth before I lay back on the bed. “I thought it was you that was extra hot.” He rubbed his cheek against mine, and moaned in the way that he does when he’s making out with my beard.

“What the hell just happened?” He pulled back and looked confused.

What was he talking about?

“You okay?” I asked, passion fading and concern kicking in.

He rolled off me and looked down his body. “What’s up with this?” He grabbed hold of his soft cock. “It was right next to your solid hard-on and if that’s not enough to keep it hard, all that kissing and nuzzling should’ve been.” He gently stroked it, trying to revive it.

“Probably just a sign that you’re tired.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “This never happens. If anything I get hard around you even when I shouldn’t.”

I had that problem, too. Just being with him, doing normal everyday things, like laundry, could get me aroused just because Alex was being Alex.

“It’s okay.” I ran my hands over him. “The kissing rocked my world.”

“It was incredible,” he said, and a faint smile reappeared.

He pressed himself into me and we kissed. It wasn’t the fevered kissing we’d had going before, but it still made my heart flutter. His cock wasn’t coming back to life though, even as mine pulsed next to it.

The relaxed kissing was still wonderful. If he worried about his lack of erection, he kept it to himself. He seemed more intent on creating an epic case of beard burn across his lips. For some people hickeys were a badge of honor. For Alex, it was redness around his lips. Over the years, he’d gotten a good amount of ribbing from the team for showing up with red marks because of my coarse beard.

We ended up lying next to each other, his head on my shoulder and one of my legs on top of his.

“How is it we’ve never kissed like that in four years?” I asked, planting small kisses on his forehead.

“I don’t know. I hope we don’t have to wait another four to do it again.”

“Totally.”

“Sorry my dick checked out.”

“Whatever. I’m not sure we’d have gotten to those anyway.” I peppered him with more kisses.

“What do you think happened?”

“Could be anything. I wasn’t kidding about being tired. Over stimulation, maybe? Could’ve been the way we were laying. Have you had that happen when you jerk off?”

“Nope. This is the first.”

“It’s probably nothing.”

“Says the guy who’s still hard,” he said, grabbing my cock and stroking it. “You know it had nothing to do with you?”

I gave him my
are you serious?
look. “Of course, silly.” I playfully swatted at him. “No one kisses like you did without being in love.”

“Good. The last thing I want is you thinking I don’t completely love you.”

“
We
completely love each other,” I said, repositioning us so I could wrap my arms around him while lying on our sides, looking at each other.

He kissed the tip of my nose. “Thanks for not giving me shit about it.”

“Never.” I nuzzled my face next to his. “Do we need to do anything or can we just stay here, make out some more and drift off to sleep?”

“I’m good staying here if you are,” he said, his voice was muffled since his mouth was jammed against my cheek.

“Come on then,” I said.

Without a word, we maneuvered ourselves so we were lying on the pillows and under the covers. I was on my back with Alex against my side.

“I love you,” I said, unable to resist kissing him more.

“I love you…so much.” With the kisses, his words were tough to understand, but I translated.

We kissed, fondled, snuggled for a long time before we dozed off.

I’d been reading in the community center’s cafe for about ten minutes when TJ arrived at my table. He looked like a man possessed.

“Hey, TJ, what’s up?”

“I was hoping to catch Dee, but I missed her. Any chance I can talk to you?”

I closed the cover on my tablet to give him my full attention and motioned for him to have a seat. “Of course. You know there are areas that I’m not as familiar with as Dee, but I’m happy to help where I can.”

He sat down. His look, while intense, wasn’t one of distress. Confusion perhaps. “I really didn’t catch you at a bad time, did I?”

“Just some reading for class,” I said, patting the tablet, “and getting my late afternoon caffeine infusion. Do you want to talk down here, or do we need to go somewhere more private?”

He looked around. The cafe was mildly busy. About half the tables were taken and there were three people in line with the barista. It was mostly adults who were likely here for some of the evening meetings.

“Here’s fine. If you see anyone from the team or youth group come in, just stop me.”

His back was to the entrance, so I would keep watch.

“Can do. So how can I help?”

“So, you know Bryan? Bryan from the team?”

It’d been more than a week since Bryan and I’d talked, and while I’d seen the two talking more often, Bryan may have finally asked his question.

I nodded, attempting to keep his momentum going.

“Well. This afternoon…” He paused, looked behind him, and lowered his voice before he continued. “He asked me out. On a for real date. Like a movie and a burger, or something like that.”

I nodded again.

“You don’t think that’s crazy?”

“Not at all. Why can’t he ask you on a date?”

I chose my words carefully because I couldn’t violate Bryan’s confidence.

“Why would he want to date this?” TJ gestured at himself. “I’m one of the most complicated people around and he wants a date. He said it wasn’t some kind of prank. And he’s a great guy, but I just don’t know.”

“You’re a great guy, too, you know. I’ve watched you with the team. You may be complicated but you’re also nice, well-spoken, smart, and pretty fun when you think you’re in a safe environment. Don’t you think he sees that?”

“Come on, he’s gonna take all kinds of shit for going out with me.”

“But he doesn’t go to your school.”

“Doesn’t mean people don’t know,” he said. “All it would take is one picture, or one slur to get posted online and it’d be a first and last date, and possibly the loss of a friend, too.” He already sounded defeated.

“TJ,” I paused for a second, to make sure I had his attention, “don’t you think he’s considered that? He knows your situation because you shared it with the team. He’s spent time with you on and off the ice. It’s not a blind date. It sounds like it’s a friend asking a friend out to see if there’s something more there.”

We studied each other. He didn’t seem to be buying what I said, so I took a different approach.

“Let me ask you this. Take the complexities out for a second. You’re a guy. He’s a guy. You know each other. Would you want to go out with him?”

The biggest smile I’d ever seen broke across his face. “Hell yeah,” he said excitedly. “I mean, have you seen him? I don’t care what I am, boy or girl, I’d want him.” He stopped, lost in thought. “Sorry,” he finally said, the sadness back in his voice.

“Not at all,” I said, making sure my happiness showed.

“He’s not even gay. He said so in that first team meeting.”

“Did you ask him about that?”

“Yeah. He said he maybe wasn’t so sure. He got kinda mushy. Said he hadn’t been around anyone that made him feel like I did.” I drank more of my coffee while he talked so I wouldn’t jump in too soon. “What am I supposed to do with that? People only say that in a movie or something.” I continued to leave silence, which he filled. “What do you think? Would you go out with him?”

The question threw the conversation back in my court. “I can’t answer that. I’m not you. Let me tell you what I’m hearing though. You said you wanted to go out with him. You lit up when you said it. You keep throwing out reasons Bryan shouldn’t want to go out with you, even though he says he wants to. If you really don’t want to, then don’t. But don’t put the choice to a vote, or let other people choose for you. I may not know what Dee would say exactly, but I’m pretty certain she wouldn’t make the choice for you.”

“What if he tries to have sex with me?” He asked, practically interrupting me.

I should’ve anticipated that question. “It’s no different than any other sex discussion. If it’s something you
both
want, you talk about it, you’re safe about it and…”

“But I don’t have…”

“And that’s part of the discussion.” I had to be careful not to get frustrated here. “Come on, TJ, you know he knows that. Do you think he’d put either one of you in an awkward situation on a first date? I’d understand that question more if he didn’t know your status.”

 “You’re right, of course.” He looked around the room again. “Why am I so scared?”

I sorta chuckled. This was an easy answer. “Because a boy you like asked you out. You’re no different than anyone else. Being asked out is exciting, especially when you like the person already, but it’s also a little scary. Being trans doesn’t change that.”

“Dee’s actually said something like that.” I could hear he was beating himself up. “Talking about dating and being asked out are very different. It’s like having a play drawn on the board and getting the concept, but trying to execute it is another matter.”

“Yup. We all navigate the dating world and it can be crazy.”

He looked down, intensely investigating the tabletop, and whispered. “I don’t want him hurt.”

“You won’t know how that works out until you take the plunge. Never any guarantees. You might end up with something awesome. It’s up to you to either accept or decline.”