Half in Half Out

Half In, Half Out - Chapter 3

Standard disclaimers apply to this story. All rights reserved by the Author.

This story is mostly fiction. Some of the situations and characters are based off people that I know or experiences I've had. However names, & locations have all been change to better suit the story. That being said this story is mostly fictional and any likenesses to any other situations are strictly coincidental.

All events that happen are completely consensual between people involved in the story. If you are not of legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now. The author retains all rights to this story. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the permission of the author.

Half in, Half out

**"**The Life of a Collegiate Gymnast"

Chapter 3

Crazy Beautiful Life

I rolled out of bed the next morning pretty early. We told the guys to come over around noon or so for the barbeque. Looking at the clock on my phone it was only 8:30. I sat there in my bed thinking about falling back to sleep but I figured I better get up and start my day. Jake only came halfway through on his promise to clean up the house for the barbeque. I'd have to get him back for that I told myself. I walked out of my room and headed downstairs. As I walked down the stairs I heard the water running in the kitchen.

"Jess? What are you doing up?" I asked her as I stretched out in the doorway.

"I have to work in an hour. I just got out of the shower and saw that the dishes weren't washed so I figured I would throw them in the dishwasher before I headed out." Jess said.

"You don't have to do that."

"Don't worry about it." Jess handed me the now clean coffee pot. "Can you be a dear and start me a pot? I'm exhausted."

"You said you've got an hour right?" I asked.

Jess finished loading up the last of the dishes into the dish washer, "Yeah."

"Go finish getting ready. I'll run down the street and grab us a coffee from the little coffee shop on the corner."

"Alright cool, I'll text you what I want." Jess grabbed her phone and started to text me. I walked back upstairs and threw on a tshirt and brushed my teeth. I walked into Jakes room to wake him up.

"What??" Jake asked grogily.

"I'm running to get Jess and me coffee. Wake up." I said to Jake.

"You picking me up one too bud?"

"Like you had to ask." I told Jake. He smiled back at me.

"Let me shower and I'll finish cleaning bro."

"Yeah, yeah." I said walking out of his room.

I grabbed my phone and left the house. Walking down the street I checked to see if I got any text back from Chase or Nate. No response from Nate, but Chase sent me a text at three that morning telling me he got home and Nate wasn't there. 'Shit' I said to myself.

I called Nate's phone, it went straight to voicemail. "Nate it's Ty. Call me as soon as you get this. I want to make sure you're okay." I hope nothing bad had happened. I told myself not to panic. I picked up our coffees and headed back to the house. Jess was sitting down in the living room watching TV. I heard the shower running upstairs from Nate.

"Hey, so whatever happened with Nate?" Jess asked me as I handed her, her coffee. "Did you hear anything back from him?"

"Nope." I sighed. I saw down next to her, "Chase texted me saying that he wasn't home when he got home from the bar."

"I'm sure he's fine." Jess rubbed my shoulder, "Don't worry about it."

"Yeah." I said and paused while I took a drink of my coffee. "I just wish he didn't run off last night."

"Don't worry too much Ty." Jess got up. "I gotta go. Thanks for the coffee, Boo."

"Not a problem. Thanks for doing the dishes."

"Yeah..." Jess got up and grabbed her things, "tell Jake he owes me."

"Will do." I said.

"Don't forget my leftovers!" Jess said as she walked out the backdoor.

I wondered for a second if she was working with Jayden today or not. Jake came down wearing only a pair of gym shorts. His hair still wet from his shower. I handed him his coffee and he sat down on the couch next to me. He asked if I heard anything from Nate. I told him the same thing I told Jess. Jake said the same thing about not worrying. We watched a rerun of, 'How I Met Your Mother' on tv before getting off the couch.

"I'm going to go take a shower." I got up and took one last drink of my coffee, "How about you finish cleaning up around here."

"I will in a sec. I want to watch another episode."

"Jake..." I said. "Multi-task!" I said as I walked up the stairs.

"I am!" Jake shouted up to me.

I shook my head and went to my room to grab my towel. By the time I had showered and finished getting ready Jake had finished cleaning up the house. I checked the time and saw it was almost noon. I figure I better go pull the grill out of the garage and start it up. Jake was now in the backyard moving some of the furniture around.

"You think we should pull that table out of the garage and set up somewhere for beer pong?" Jake asked.

"Eh.. doesn't matter." I said nonchalantly. I wasn't too concerned with beer pong. I was more concerned about our missing team captain at the moment.

"Dude..." Jake stopped moving the bags boards. "Nate's fine. Don't worry about it." He must've sensed I was still worrying about him.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Don't worry. We know Nate is a smart guy. He'll probably come walking through that door with the guys and everything will be fine. Now start that grill, I'm hungry bitch!" Jake slapped me on the arm.

"Uhh, you're helping cook too, Jacob Colletti!"

"Didn't say I wasn't, Tyler Savino Conti." Jake said.

"Puttana" I said. It meant bitch in italian.

"I heard that." Jake laughed.

"Meant you to buddy. Don't be full naming me." I laughed and looked over at Jake.

I started the grill and headed inside. Jake walked back in and was already drinking a beer. Soon one by one the team showed up. Aaron showed up with Brian another one of our freshman team members. I smiled when I saw the two of them together. I was glad to see Aaron start to open up to the rest of the team. Soon the house had all 22 of our 23 guys in it talking and bullshitting. Some of them were watching the football game, some of the others were outside in the back playing bags. The only person missing was our captain, Nate.

"Dude, where is Nate at?" Jake asked me.

"Uh... how am I supposed to know? You were right next to me when he peaced out of here."

"I know. Just thought maybe you heard something.

I shook my head, "Nothing. Should we ask Eric?"

"I did already." Jake said. "He told me he crashed over at one of the guys house so he hasn't been home yet."

I handed him the tongs I was cooking on the grill with, "I'm going to go upstairs and try calling him again. Watch the food."

I walked up stairs to my room and pulled out my phone to call Nate. Still no answer. 'Dammit Nate. Answer your fucking phone.' I said to myself. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and headed downstairs. As I was walking down the stairs I heard the front door opening.

"Well it's about fucking time out captain showed up." I heard Eric say.

'Phew' I thought. A few of the guys got up and gave him a high five and such. I walked right back out to the backyard and grabbed a beer. "We can relax now." I told Jake.

"Why?" He asked. I pointed toward the door. Nate was standing there with a 6 pack of beer in one arm, and a bottle of what looked like vodka in the other. "That bitch." Jake said.

"Yep."

Nate was a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses, khaki shorts, a white V-Neck tshirt that clung to his torso, and flip flops. He walked out the backdoor and said 'Hi' to a few of the other guys before heading our way. He put the beer down next to the tub of beer we had outside and the bottle of vodka on top of it.

"Hey guys." Nate said to us. I sat there looking at him.

"Hey." We both said in unison.

There was an awkward silence between the three of us. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to be the first to bring up what happened last night. I figured we were at a team event, if he wants to talk about it, it'd be all on him.

"You're late dbag." Jake broke the silence.

"Yeah, sorry. I woke up late and then wanted to run to the liquor store. Had to get some vodka for the teams' first shot."

"Hope you got the good stuff." I told him.

"You know the Goose will get ya boys feeling loose." Nate joked. He stuck out his hand for me to shake.

We shook and half hugged. I was so relieved that he didn't do anything stupid. Jake and Nate did the same. The awkward tension, at least for the moment seemed to be gone.

"Well now that that's settled." Jake turned towards everyone else in the backyard. "FOODS ALMOST READY, OH YEAH!" Jake screamed.

One by one everyone started to grab their food from the grill. You would be amazed how many burgers and hot dogs 23 gymnast could devour. I wasn't sure if we would have enough. All of us guys were outside joking and laughing with each other. I saw Nate head over towards the booze bucket to grab the vodka.

"I've got an announcement to make." Nate stood at the top of the stairs that lead out the backdoor of our house.

Some of the guys started yelling, 'Speech! Speech! Speech!" to Nate. "I want to say thank you to you all for being here today! Sorry I was late. I had a late night last night." Jake immediately looked over at me. I looked back and shrugged. "But that's not important." Nate said and looked in Jake and my direction. "What is important is that all of us are here together bonding and becoming a team. I want you guys to look around, especially you freshmen. These guys will become your family." Some of the guys took him literally and started looking around at each other. "We're a family here at State. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you guys." Nate was looking towards Jake and me again. "We may fight, we may not always get along with each other all the time. But, we're a family. So, to those of you who are new to the team I welcome you guys to our family. And to you guys who have been around already, make these new guys feel welcome." The guys erupted in a cheer. "Now as your captain, I intend for us to have an amazing season together. I want us to win a lot meets, kick ass in tournaments, and take bring that damn national title back to our fucking school!" Nate said loudly.

Aaron leaned into me and said, "He's good at this."

I turned to him and laughed. "He's just getting started."

"So with that," Nate opened the bottle of Vodka. "We're going to take a shot as a team." Nate grabbed a bag of cups and Eric helped him pour the shots for everyone. Once we all had a cup, Nate took off his sun glasses and raised his cup. "With all that said, here's to a great season, a great team, a great group of guys, here's to family." We all cheered and everyone took their shot.

After Nates speech everyone seemed to really loosen up. We had a few games of beer pong going, people were playing bags, I plugged my ipod into our stereo system and opened up the windows so we could hear it outside. Jake had called Summer and told her to come over. She bought a few of her girlfriends. I noticed Jess would be off in an hour and told her if she wanted to, bring some friends from work over since we still had plenty of booze and food left. I was playing a game of Cornhole with Aaron, Jake, and Nate. Aaron and me were beating Jake and Nate. I was really happy with how chill everything turned out to be. It was a little funny that it was the middle of the day on Sunday and our barbeque was quickly turning into a little party.

"Hey man, this is pretty sweet." Aaron said.

"Yeah, we've never done a team barbeque like this before. Usually we'll just all go out or something like that." I picked up the bean bags. It was my turn, tossed my bag down towards the board and it went in the hole.

"Bet you can't do that again Ty." Nate called to me.

"Watch me." I tossed another one and it went in the hole.

Aaron and me high fived. "Dude that was sweet."

"Yeah, it's your turn now. Don't fuck up!" I teased him. Aaron tossed the first bag and it went into the hole. He went again and made it. "Hell yeah!" I gave Aaron a high five. "That's game bitches."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pure luck." Nate joked.

"You're pretty good Aaron." Jake said.

"Thanks man." Jake put his arm around Jake. The two of them walked over to go grab another beer. Nate and me were talking to a few other guys.

"Hey guys!" I heard someone say, I looked over and saw Jess standing at the backdoor. I waved at her and motioned for her to come out. She gave me a one sec and nodded her head motioning for someone to come out with her. Out walked Jayden. I left the group and walked over to them.

"Hey." I said to them. "What's up Jayden?" I felt like I had a big smile on my face. I was a little excited and shocked he showed up.

"Not much man. Pretty nice set up you guys got going on." Jayden said.

"We both got off the same time and were both starving. I got your text about saying we had a lot of food and booze left over so I invited him over." Jess said as she looked over at me.

"Oh yeah." I pointed towards the grill, "We've got lots of food. Eat up you two." I said. Jayden smiled at me. I left them by the grill and walked over to where Jake was.

"I see your boys here." Jake said as I walked up.

"Shut up." I said. "He's not my boy."

Summer and Jake were standing off to the side with each other talking. Jake had his arm around her shoulder. "Well that's just cause we don't know if he's gay or not." Summer said.

"I barely know him." I said.

"Yeah, yeah... " Jake had started to say. I gave him a look that told him not to finish that sentence. He stopped and I turned around to see who was walking up.

"Hey man, what's going on?" Jayden stuck out his hand to Jake. They shook hands.

Jake looked a little caught off guard. "Welcome to our barbeque turned day time kegger." Jake said and raised his glass.

Jayden touched Jakes cup, "I can always get down with some daytime drinking. I hope it's cool I'm here though."

Jake smiled and looked over at me, "Nah man, it's not a problem. The more the merrier. Just don't let this turn into too much of a sausage fest. I wanna get some of these guys laid." Jake laughed.

"Hell yeah man, I heard that." Jayden said.

Jess, Summer, and Jayden walked off to sit down and eat. Jake and me were talking to each other when Nate walked over to us. Nate was back to being that relaxed, confident version of him I knew so well. He was holding 3 red cups in addition to his own cup of beer.

"Hey guys, can we talk?" Nate asked.

"Sure, what's going on?" Jake said.

"Uhh, I mean..." Jake nodded his head towards the house. "You know, somewhere just a little more private."

"Yeah, lets head up to my room." I said. We walked up to my room and closed the door behind us.

Nate took off his sunglasses and was looking a little uneasy now. "Hey, I just wanted to talk to you about last night."

"Sure man, before you say anything..." I started to say before Nate cut me off.

"No, let me finish Ty." Nate took a drink of his beer. "I just wanted to say sorry about how I reacted last night. But it all happened a little fast for me. Prior to dinner with Ty the only person who knew about me was Chase. Then in a matter of 3 hours, Jake, Summer, Jess, and you knew too. This is just taking some getting used to."

"You don't have to worry about us though." Jake said.

"I know..." Nate paused. "I mean, Jake no offense it's just, coming out is a big step. I'm sure Tyler could relate." I nodded. "I'm just not ready to come out to everyone right now."

I sat down on my bed and told Nate, "I know how you feel. Jake just meant, you don't have to worry about it getting out. Jake has known about me for 2 years, Jess and Summer for a little over a year now. No one is going to out you. We all have too much to lose."

"Yeah, I would never. and I'll keep it a secret until you say so." Jake said.

"I know..." Nate said. "I'm just sorry about running out last night. But it's good to know I've got a few more people who I can talk to now."

Jake motioned for me to stand up. "Aww.. it's cool Nate. We're your boys you know that." Jake stuck his arms out wide, "I think it's time for a group hug."

"No.. no." Nate said. "Lets' just take our shot." Nate handed the other cups to the two of us.

"To my gay friends!" Jake said. We both looked at Jake. I couldn't help but laugh.

I nudged him, "Stupid."

"Alright, alright, here, I'll say it." Jake said. "This is to making sure Nate has a kick ass season, gets back in shape, and the three of us lead the team to that national title."

"Salute!" Nate and me both said at the same time and took our shot.

"Now it's time for that group hug! Nate started to back away from us. "Get over here Nate!" I grabbed his arm. Jake threw his arm around both of us.

"See! Group hugs are good." Jake said playfully. "But don't get too excited you two. I like girls." Nate and me pushed Jake away and onto the bed.

After that we went downstairs. It was about to be eight and I was hoping the party was going to be over soon. I went outside and it looked like we were almost out of beer which was always a good sign to a party nearing its end. I was on my way outside to try and talk with Jess and Jayden when Aaron stopped me. He was looking pretty drunk at this point.

"Hey Aaron..." I looked at him. He was stumbling a bit.

"Ty, could you show me your bathroom, I'm not feeling too good." The first thing that came to my mind was, 'You will NOT throw up in my living room'.

"Yeah..." I looked around quickly to see where Jake was. He was sitting outside, they had lit the fire and it looked like some of the guys had started to leave. "Let's get you upstairs so you won't attract too much attention bud. You have drank before, right?"

"Of course." We got to the bathroom. I sat him down next to the toilet. "I think I just over did it a bit today."

"Yeah, it happens to best of us..." I got up and told him to stay there. I was going to get a bottle of water out the fridge. I was grabbing the bottles out of the fridge when Jayden tapped me on the shoulder.

"What's with the water bottles? Someone drink too much?" Jayden asked.

I nodded my head. I looked over at him. He was standing and I couldn't help but notice how cute he was. "It's not me though. One of the freshman drank a bit too much."

"Well yeah, who throws a keg-er on a Sunday?" Jayden laughed. "You gymnast sure are a bunch of fraternity boys without the letters."

I laughed at him, "Shut up. Can you grab me those paper towels."

We went back upstairs and I heard the sound of Aaron throwing up what sounded like his life. I started to laugh a bit and had to compose myself before I opened the door. I opened the door and Aaron looked up at me and shook his head.

"Sorry guys." Aaron tried to sneak in between upchucking.

"Nah, bro you're good. I can't even begin to count the times I've puked from drinking too much." Jayden rubbed Aarons back. "Just let it flow because you'll feel great once you're done. Won't he Tyler?"

I sat back taking in the sight of Aaron puking and Nate trying to make him feel better. I shook my head. Jayden is a good guy I thought. Jayden nudged my arm and caught my attention.

"Won't he Tyler?"

I took me a second to realize what he was talking about. "Oh yeah..." I paused for a second. "Keep puking Aaron, you'll feel great! Puke and rally is what I like to say!"

Aaron gave a thumbs up and spewed out more throw up. We sat there for a few more minutes till Aaron finally pulled his head from the toilet. There was a knock on the door, it was Nate. We told him that Aaron got a little sick and we'd be out in a few. He had just came up to let us know that most of the guys had left and it was only Jake and the girls left besides him. I told him we'd be down in a few minutes. We got Aaron up and he said he wanted to lay down for a few. I sure wasn't about to let him lay down in my bed so I we laid him down on Jakes bed with a bottle of water and trash can.

"You sure we should just leave him on your buds bed?" Jayden asked.

"Oh, he's going to cut me when he comes up here. But better him than Jess' or my bed." I laughed.

"Hey man, it's getting late. I was actually just coming up to tell you I was heading out." Jayden said. "But then you looked like you needed some help with Aaron." He laughed, "But, I have some work I've gotta get done for rush week and school before I go to sleep tonight."

"Thanks for helping out, you didn't have to though." Jayden just shrugged saying as it wasn't a problem. "But alright, that sounds good. I'll see ya tomorrow." We sat there for a second. I had some liquid courage in myself and was going to ask him for that rain-check but I figured now wasn't the time.

Jayden cracked a smile. "Well, I'm going to get going then." He leaned over and looked at Aaron, "Take care in there bud! Remember, happens to the best of us!" Aaron was laying on his side on Jakes bed. He gave us a thumbs up and the two of us started laughing. I led him downstairs and to the door. I joined Jake and the rest of who was left outside. Once it got to about midnight I decided to call it a night. All that was left was Jess and Jake out there. Summer had went home.

"Oh, Jake, I forgot to mention, Aaron passed out on your bed." I said as I got up to head inside.

"Tyler!" I heard Jake say as I walked upstairs.

"Sorry bud." I smiled and walked in the house thinking he's going to kill me. I went up to my room and changed into a pair of shorts. I checked on Aaron one more time. Still passed out on the bed as we left him. Jake is going to kill me I thought. I went back to my room and passed out.

That Wednesday I was sitting in the Oval with Jess and Summer killing time before class with Jayden. We were all bitching about the amount of homework we had. Things had been pretty quiet since the barbeque on Sunday. Jake quickly got over being a little pissed at me for letting Aaron crash in his bed. He slept on the couch that night. I could tell Aaron felt a little embarrassed but I told him not to worry about it... and to give Jake a little space for a few days.

"So I was talking to Jayden yesterday at work and he said something. I don't know if you're going to like this Ty." Jess said. Summer was texting on her phone and stopped immediately and looked up at Jess.

"What's that?" I asked.

"He was mentioning how his ex was coming into town this weekend for the game on Saturday. He didn't make it sound like they were going to hook up or anything. He sounded more annoyed than anything."

"That bitch." Summer said.

"Summer." I laughed, "It's cool... I mean, I'm not upset or anything. We've only really talked in class anyways." I did feel a little put off by this news but I was trying to reason with myself that I had no reason to be. Jayden and me were just friends, classmates more or less that shared a mutual friend. "Well at least we know now that he's straight."

"Yeah. I'm sorry Ty..." Jess reached over and rubbed my shoulder. "I know you kinda liked him."

"Nonsense. We're classmates with a mutual friend, that's all." I said. The girls both looked at me like they weren't buying what I was selling.

"Show me the receipts then." Summer said.

I looked at her confused and laughed, "What?"

"Prove you didn't like him at least a little." Summer said matter of fact like.

I got up and started to pack up my things it was almost time for class. "No." I told them. "You guys are crazy. We were only ever just friends." I laughed.

"You're a terrible liar Tyler." I heard Jess say as I started to walk away. I just smiled to myself and shook my head.

I walked into class a few minutes early and saw Jayden sitting there looking out the window with his ipod on. He looked like he was in deep thought. As I sat down at our table he looked up and just gave a slight wave. Something about him seemed off today. I didn't think he was my place to ask so I sat down next to him and took my things out. I sat there looking over notes from the previous class while I waited on the professor to start class. After a few minutes of reading my notes, I noticed the professor hadn't showed up yet. Now it was an unspoken rule that you had fifteen minutes to wait for the professor to show up before you can consider the class cancelled. I checked my phone and saw we only had about 5 minutes to go. If class was cancelled I would be able to sneak in a quick nap before practice.

"Hey, how much longer do we have till class is cancelled?" Jayden asked me. He was still listening to his ipod.

I told him, "Five minutes." He nodded his head. I wondered why he was in such a bad mood. "If class is cancelled you want to grab a cup of coffee or something?" I asked.

He didn't respond at first. I wrote it down on my notebook and slid it over to him. He smirked, "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

I sat there and waited for the 15 minute mark. I looked and saw we only had a minute left and started to pack up my things. I was getting anxious that the professor was going to show up as we walked out. I checked my phone one more time and saw we reached the fifteen minute mark. I grabbed my bag and stood up. I was the first one to do so. Once I had the rest of the class followed suit. Jayden and me were the first ones out the door and heading down the hall. I was hoping we didn't bump into our professor. Jayden still had his headphone on. I started to wonder if we were still going to go and get coffee.

As soon as we exited the building Jayden looked over, "So where'd you want to go?"

I was caught off guard for a second since I didn't notice him take off his ear phones. "Lets' just go to the Starbucks in the Union." I told him.

We headed that way not exchanging in much talking. He seemed to be a bit annoyed still. We ordered our drinks and found a open space in the corner with two sofa chairs.

"You alright? You seem a little... I don't know, annoyed today." I asked him. "We didn't have to come get coffee. Just figured we'd make up for that rain-check." I laughed trying to ease the tension.

"Oh... sorry." Jayden said. "Is it that obvious I'm in a shit mood?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, I don't mean to be a dick right now. Rush is going on this week and a few of my brothers chewed me out today over some stupid shit. They're bitching because I didn't get the sorority that we usually get to mix with, to mix with us."

I nodded, "Ahh... fraternity drama. Doesn't sound like fun."

"It's stupid. I told them not worry. We're one of the best houses on campus, guys will come regardless." Jayden said. "But they want that sorority so now I've got to go talk to their rush committee and see if I can get them to mix with us and drop the other house. I feel like a dick."

"Well, it is kinda a dick move they're making you pull."

Jayden looked up from his coffee, "Thanks." He put his coffee down and sighed, "There's that and my ex decided to spring on me they wanted to come into town this weekend for the game & rush party. That's two annoyances in too little of a time span."

I laughed at him, "I can imagine. Sounds worst than girl drama."

"Right! And I can assure you, I'm no fucking girl." Jayden laughed.

I raised my eyebrow, "I'll take your word for it." I took a sip of my coffee, "Why not tell her not this week?"

"Nah, I can't tell them 'no' now. With my ex, once they make up their mind there's no changing it." Nate said. "That's one of the reasons we broke up, that and the fact they cheated on me. I could never forgive that."

"I'm sorry." I said. "I bet. I've never been cheated on... or even in a real relationship so I can't compare. But, I could imagine it's not a good feeling." I said.

"It's horrible." Jayden said. "What do you mean you've never been in a relationship? You're a good looking guy and seem normal enough."

"Thanks." I smiled at Jayden. "It's the sport, it doesn't lend itself to have the time to relationships growing up. And here at state, the opportunity has never arose." I took a sip of my coffee.

"I'm sure it will sometime." Jayden said with a smile. "I think it's mostly about timing. I'm not the kinda guy who has to be in a relationship, if the time is right and something happens I'm all for it. I can't see myself even trying to date anyone this semester. I've got a massive course load, plus work, plus being Rush Chair... Fuck my life Ty." Jayden joked.

I laughed back at him, "Well up until today you've seem to handle the stress pretty good."

"Yeah my ex really pissed me off. I know they're going to want to crash at the house with me too. I'm not down with that." Jayden leaned back in the chair. "Besides, I'm going to be extremely busy for the first half of the party with potential pledges and making sure the brothers get a chance to meet everyone. Once everyone is good and wasted, then I can relax. Until then I've gotta work the room and try get guys interested in the frat."

"I see." I leaned back on my chair.

We continued to talk a little while longer about rush. I tried to avoid the topic of his ex since it seemed to piss him off. It made me feel good that he wasn't happy with them being there. Even if he was straight, better him to date someone nice than a bitch, Jayden was a good guy.

"So how is practice going?" Jayden asked me.

"It's going. I'm back into a decent enough shape now. So I'm not huffing and puffing for air during a routine like I was last month."

Jayden gave me a look that basically said 'please'. "You looked like you were in awesome shape the first time I met you."

"Yeah, but being in shape, and being in routine shape is two different things. Since I'm reworking a lot of my routines this year I've got to get in shape a little sooner than I usually would so I can get comfortable with my new sets."

"I see. I can just imagine how hard doing all that flipping and stuff is. I played football and baseball in high school but that was it. I play on a intramural baseball team with a few of the brothers." Jayden said.

"That's cool. I wish I had the time to join an intramural. But if I got injured..." I trailed off for a second. "Lets' just say I better not get injured." I laughed.

Jayden nodded and laughed with me. "So what is the hardest thing you're working on right now?"

"For which event?" I asked.

"Uhh... the one you do all the tumbling on, floor is it?" Jayden said.

I smiled at the fact that he knew nothing about gymnastics and at least feigned interest, "A piked double arabian."

"A what?!" Jayden said between drinks of his coffee.

"It's a flip where you start off backwards but you do a half twist and two flips. You end up facing the opposite direction of where you started. I can do it in a laid out or tucked position, but the piked version is a bit harder." I took a drink of my coffee. "Since it's a blind landing, you have to come out at the right time or you'll sit it down. Or you can end up landing with locked legs and that's never good either."

"Ouch." Jayden said.

I learned the laid out, and the tucked versions years ago. Those came easily, I am just learning the piked version so that I can switch it out with the tucked one and get a few more tenths to my start value."

Jayden sat there and nodded his head. "I'm nodding my head like I know what you're saying but I'm clueless. You'll have to teach me all this before I go to one of your guys' meets."

I laughed at trying to teach Jayden all the gymnastics terms. I wasn't even sure if my parents knew it all. "Deal." I told him.

After awhile I looked at the clock and noticed I had to get to the gym for practice in a little bit. I got up and told Jayden I needed to get to the training gym. He told me he was still trying to figure out what to say to the other sorority and asked if he could walk with me. We got up and headed towards the gym. He was asking me for advice on what he should say to them, but I honestly had no idea. We got to the gym and some of the guys from the team were walking in.

"So this is where you guys train at? Pretty sweet... and you bitches get your own lot too? You guys suck." Jayden said.

"Yep. It's pretty sweet, I don't have to look all over campus for a spot to park ever." I said.

"You should stop by this weekend for the party, Ty. Show up around eleven - eleven thirty -ish. I'll put you on the list at the door so you won't have to pay or anything." Jayden took out his phone. "Here, let me text you so you'll have my number." I gave him my phone number and felt my phone vibrate.

"Uh.. is it cool if I bring Jake and the girls?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I was going to invite Jess tomorrow at work."

"Alright sounds good." I said.

"Alright, I'll let you go in." Jayden stuck out his hand in a fist. I tapped my fist against his. He laughed and walked off. I watched him as he headed towards the street. He turned around to me and said, "Oh, and by the way, this didn't make up for the raincheck bud. You still owe me." I smiled back at him and nodded.

As Jayden walked off, Jake was walking up. "Aww.. cute. My lil bro is in love." Jake teased me. I play punched him in the shoulder.

"Shut up. He was having a crappy day, class was cancelled so we got some coffee." I told Jake as we walked into the building.

"I'm not judging. If anything Ty, it's about time we killed that dry spell of yours."

I just shook my head, "Shut up Jake."

"It's all with love, I swear." Jake said.

"I know. I know." I said.

The next two days went by slow as hell. I told Jake about going to Jayden's party. He didn't sound too thrilled with it at first. It was Friday now and he still hadn't given me a definite answer. I'm sure he would go, I doubt he'd leave Jess and me to go to the party alone. Walking into the training gym I texted Summer to see if she would come. While I was getting ready for practice I had my phone out waiting for a response from her to see if she would go. I figure that would seal the deal and make Jake come for sure. I've already tried the free booze line on him.

While we were between rotations I ran to the locker room to check my phone and see if Summer had responded yet. I checked my phone and saw her message,

Summer: Is there free booze? Who's going? You said Jaydens fraternity right?? If so, yeah, count me in. :)

I hurried and texted her back and ran back out to practice. Jake and me were in the same training group and working on the parallel bars. I was chalking up before I started practicing on them.

"I talked to Summer, she said she would come tomorrow." I said to Jake.

"Ugh..." Jake groaned. "Do we have to go?"

"Yes. We're partners for a school project, I can't blow him off." I said right before I mounted the bars.

"Well there's that and the fact that you might want to bang him." Jake said up to me.

I was in a handstand on the bars, I looked over at Jake and smiled. "Don't make me laugh, if I fall I'm going to beat you."

"Conti and Colletti!" I heard our coach say in a stern voice as he walked over. I looked over at him and went back to my routine.

I nearly completed my routine before stopping right before the dismount and looked over at Jake and said, "And besides..." I took one more swing and did my front double pike dismount. "Summer is coming, free booze, and I know you don't want me to be wingman-less tomorrow."

Jake shook his head and got ready to mount the bars. Jake mounted the bars a bit differently than me and used a spring board. I was standing off to the side waiting for him to mount so I could pull the board away. "Fine. We'll go. But if it's lame we're leaving." Jake mounted the bars. "Nate said Chase and him were going to the Fishbowl if we wanted to come too. So we'll go there if it's lame."

I pulled the springboard away and told him, "Deal."

We finished up the rest of practice. I told Nate about the party on Saturday. He told me he wasn't interested in going but told me to text him if it's lame and we could meet up. Nate had to hurry up after practice to head to go for what would hopefully be his last doctor's appointment for his hurt shoulder. He said he felt like it was 100% but he just had to wait for the doctor to give him the okay before he started training like he was before the surgery.

After practice a few of us guys went out to eat at Subway. Coach said practice tomorrow was underclassmen only. I was really excited because that meant I would be able to tailgate tomorrow. Our football team were playing at home and I haven't had a chance to go to a game or tailgate yet. Jake thought we should have a mini cookout at the house but I reminded him of what happened last time with Aaron crashing in his bed and he quickly changed his mind about that. We decided we'd go out to the field and tailgate in the lot. The rest of Friday went by slow. Jess was at work all day so Jake and me had the house to ourselves. We played some video games and lounged around the house. I was procrastinating on my studying. I was doing some dishes in the kitchen when I heard a knock on the door.

"Jake you wanna get that?" I asked from the kitchen. I didn't hear him say anything but I knew he was in the front room. I heard another knock. "Jake!" I yelled from the kitchen. Still nothing. I dried my hands off and went to answer the door. I looked over at the couch and saw Jake passed out with his ipod on. 'No wonder he didn't hear me' I thought. I answered the door and it was Nate.

I opened the door a bit surprised to see Nate unannounced. "Hey buddy what's going on?"

Nate had a big smile on his face. "Hey..." Nate stepped into the house. "... sorry to come over unannounced."

"Nah, don't worry about it, I was just doing some dishes." I said. We walked back into the kitchen and Nate sat down at the table. "Why do you have that huge smile right now?"

"I got the okay from my doctor today!" Nate said excitedly. I gave him a high five. "He said not to push myself too fast but that I was good to start training all events again." I could tell by the tone of his voice he was excited.

"That's fuckin awesome man." I said as I finished the dishes.

"Yeah, I'm pumped. Chase and Eric were out when I got home so I figured I'd come by here. I had to share the news with someone."

"No, def not a problem you stopping in man. You're always welcome."

"I feel like we should celebrate!" Nate said excitedly.

"Nah, I can't go out drinking tonight, I've got massive amounts of homework I need to get done." I felt bad telling him no.

"Oh yeah, me too.." Nate said. "I meant like, let's order a pizza or something."

"Pizza, I can do."

We ordered the pizza and went up to my room. While we waited he told me about the doctors visit and how excited his mom was for him. I remember when he got hurt at Nationals. He was having such a good meet and then he got hurt, his mom was so upset. We sat around talking and listening to music while waiting around for the pizza to get here. I heard a knock at the door and got up to get answer the door. Nate gave me the money and I went down to get the food. Jake was still passed out on the couch. I thought about waking him up but figured we would just leave him a slice or two. I paid the pizza guy and grabbed a few paper plates from he kitchen and a couple of bottle waters.

"Hey..." I took a bite of pizza. "Got a question for you." I said.

Nate took a bite of his slice, "Shoot man."

"Just out of curiosity, have you tried to contact Heath?" I took a drink of water. Nate stopped eating and looked at me.

"Uhh..." He paused. "I thought about it. I just don't know. Like I said, I hurt him pretty bad."

"True." I laughed. Nate threw a pillow at me. "I'm just playing! I was agreeing with you though. Maybe we could stop in at his restaurant sometime?" I said.

Nate took another bite of the pizza. "Yeah, maybe. I feel bad, I haven't really seen anyone from the summer since school started. It was really awkward for the last two weeks before I had to quit with school starting." Nate paused, "Heath would make sure we didn't have shifts together. I didn't care because I liked not having to deal with it. It made it easier to forget about the situation."

"Yeah I bet." I nodded at him. "But you still care about him, right?"

"Yeah. He's a great guy. I wish you could've met him."

"Hmm..." I said. "Well, give it some time, but I think we should stop by the restaurant at some point. Practice being cordial with each other or something."

"Yeah, we should sometime. You know I'm thinking about to Eric now too."

"Wow did you say it was kinda the reason you broke things off with Heath."

"Yeah, I know." Nate said. "But I live with him, it's going to eventually come up."

I nodded my head agreeing with him, "Yeah. I mean, we all know Eric isn't the nicest guy on the team though, I just want you to be careful Nate."

Nate looked at me. "I know, it's just a thought that's come through my head."

"I agree. I just feel like right now we all have such good chemistry in and out of the gym. I'd hate to throw it off." I told Nate as I laid back in my bed for a second and let out a sigh.

"Yeah." Nate smiled at me. "It's just me thinking I'm ready. I'm sure when if it came down to it I'd probably freak out." Nate laughed.

"For now, we've got each other and we've got our friends..." I nudged Nates leg. "Well the ones that know."

We went back to talking about other things. It was around 10:30 when Jake finally woke up. He came upstairs to my room and complained about me letting him sleep that long. He sat down and had ate some of the left over pizza. A little later Nate headed out because he wanted to get some schoolwork done before we tailgated tomorrow.

"So what you two talk about?" Jake asked.

"Nothing really. We did discuss about potentially going to the restaurant where he worked this summer. He said he still cared about Heath."

"Sounds awesome. You think they're going to get back together?"

"I don't know. I'm interested to see Heath." I laughed. "I wonder what Nate's type is."

Jake laughed, "Well you were a few weeks ago."

I just shook my head. "It's okay to be jealous because you know you're not either of our type."

Jake rolled his eyes, "Yep that's it." Jake got up. "Please, don't act like you wouldn't be all about this if you didn't have the chance." He lefted up his shirt and flashed his chest.

I smiled, "Okay... okay.. you caught me." I faked throwing my hands up.

"That's right baby boy!" Jake said walking out of my room. He slapped his own ass.

"What are you two flirting about now?" I heard Jess coming up the stairs.

"Oh nothing. Ty just finally admitted he would tap this." I heard Jake laugh as he went to the bathroom.

"Did he?" Jess asked. She was standing in my doorway. She was still in her work clothes. "I'm exhausted." She came and laid on my bed.

"You look it." I pushed the pizza box towards her. "Want a piece?"

She grabbed a slice, "Mmm..." she said. "Why does cold Papa Johns taste so good?" Jess said.

"I know!"

"You know, for being athletes you boys have some of the unhealthiest diets."

"Do not! Besides, I'm a growing boy!" I teased.

"Yeah, your waist line is going to be growing too if you keep eating like this." Jess poked my side and made me jump since I was extremely ticklish there.

"So you want to come to the game with us tomorrow? A few of the guys are going to tailgate before the game."

"Hmm... sounds like a total sausage fest. Sure why not? I'll shoot Summer a text and see if she wants to come with." Jess got up from my bed. "I'm going to shower and then put in a movie, want to watch something?

"Nah, I got to get some studying done tonight. Nate stopped in unannounced so I am just now getting bit of free time."

"Alright sounds good." Jess got up. "I'll be on the couch if you want to join." She said as she walked out. "Jake I'm going to put a movie in if you want to watch with me."

"I've got to finish up this homework and then I'll be down." I heard Jake yell out to her.

It was about midnight and I just grabbed my books and opened them up. Jake was in the spare bedroom studying too and I knew if I went in there we would just end up talking. I was about an hour into studying and wanting to poke my eyes out when I felt my phone vibrate. I checked it and saw it was a text from Jayden.

Jayden: Hey bro, you up?

I figured he probably would be out partying and wondered why he was texting me at 1:14 in the morning.

Tyler: Yeah what's up?

Jayden: Nothing much... having a quiet night around the house.

Tyler: Sounds like fun. I'm studying right now. Aren't I cool?

Jayden: Yeah you are! I am too. I have to type up the guest list for tomorrow too.

Tyler: A guest list for a frat party? Didn't realize they were so exclusive.

Jayden: lol... well when you're one of the biggest frats on campus, you can't just let anyone in the house.

Tyler: Ahh.. I see...

Jayden: You got practice tomorrow?

Tyler: Nah, it's an underclassmen only practice. I lucked out. Why what's up?

There was a pause in our conversation. I went back to studying and figured he got busy with something. A few minutes later I felt my phone vibrate.

Jayden: Sorry. It was my fucking ex. They're wasted and wanted to talk.

I laughed at that text. I wonder why if he was so annoyed about having his ex in town, why he was letting them come.

Tyler: You should be like, "Bitch, leave me alone!"

Jayden: lmao! I should! I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I was asking if you what you were doing cause I had an extra ticket to the game and wanted to see if you'd be interested in it?

Dammit I thought. I would so go with him, but I don't want to blow off the guys.

Tyler: I would... but I've already got plans to tailgate.

Jayden: Uhh, yeah, you do that before the game... lol

Jayden: j/p

I smirked at that text. He sure is a charmer I thought.

Tyler: I know that dbag. But we were going to come back to our place and watch the game after that.

Jayden: Oh.. okay. Well... I guess I'll see ya at the party then right?

Tyler: Yeah, make sure you put down, Jess, Summer, and Jake too.

Jayden: Alright. Sounds awesome. Can't wait!

Tyler: Okay, I gotta get back to studying.

Jayden: Yeah me too. cya bud.

Tyler: k.

Gross I thought to myself. I hate when people respond to me with just one letter in a text. It's so dumb I think. I shrugged and threw my phone on the night stand I studied for a few more minutes before I fell asleep.

I heard knocking on my door. I rolled over and checked my phone. It was 9 in the morning. I tried ignoring the knocking and rolled back over in my bed. It was too early to be up on a day I had no school or practice. I sat there for a second hoping Jake or Jess would get the hint and go away. I heard another knock on the door and the door knob turn.

"I'm up." I sighed.

The door opened and it was Jess and Summer. "Hey." Summer said. She was holding a cup of coffee in her hand.

"I hope one of those are for me." I sat up in my bed.

"It is." Summer said and handed me a cup. "Jess and me went for a run this morning then stopped and picked breakfast for us."

I took a sip of my coffee. It was nice and hot. "This is perfect way to wake up... well almost perfect." I laughed. "But if I had to wake up to two girls, you two would be the ideal girls."

Jess smirked at that. "Yeah, yeah. Jake jumped in the shower, what time do you want to head down to the field?"

"I'll text the guys. Probably head out there in like an hour or so. Game's at noon."

Summer was laying next to me on my bed. "Alright, then get ready." She slapped my chest.

"Ouch." I said. I heard the bathroom door open.

Jake walked into the doorway. "Good you're up. Guys want to meet around ten thirty at the field. I was going to wake you up when I got out of the shower."

"Sounds good." I said.

"Jake, I left your coffee downstairs." Summer told him.

"Alright, can you bring it up please?" Jake asked her and made a puppy dog face.

The girls got up and went back downstairs. I jumped in the shower and got ready. I checked myself out in the mirror, I had some scruff growing in on my face but decided to wait until later to shave. I went back into my room and finished getting dressed. I threw on a pair of khaki shorts and grabbed a school shirt to wear. I didn't feel like doing my hair so I grabbed my state baseball cap and headed downstairs. We drank our coffee and waited till about 15 till to head over to stadium. Once we met up with everyone we cracked open a beer and started listening to the pregame show over the radio. Nate brought this portable grill he had and was making hot dogs on it.

"That things pretty sweet." I said to Nate.

"Haha, yeah. My brother got it for me this summer. So that way when he visits for games we can use it to tailgate."

"Your brother is going to come up?" I asked.

"Yeah, he wants to come up for the homecoming game." Nate said. Nate had a brother who is 2 years older than him and a sister who is 4 years older than him. I've met them both before, they're carbon copies of each other.

"That'd be sweet. It's a week before Halloween though, that would've been sweet if it was Halloween weekend."

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. "You bet." Nate said to me. I nodded and pulled it out it was a text from Jayden.

Jayden: Ex-zilla just got here... lol.. We're heading to the stadium now with some of the brothers. What are you guys doing?

I laughed at his text and sent him one back.

Tyler: We're finishing up here in the lot and then heading to The Library over on High St. by our place. Text me after or something. You should stop in after the game. I'd like to meet her.

I tucked my phone back into my pocket and told Jake that Jayden was here with some of his brothers and his ex. "Well, tell him to meet us at the bar. I'd like to meet him."

I looked at him confused. "Him? You know Jayden."

Jake laughed and shook his head. "His ex you tard. Tell me you don't think he's straight still?"

"I don't know..." I shrugged. "I mean, he's in a frat, hanging out with some of his brothers. You think he's really going to bring his ex-boyfriend out with them?"

Jake sat there for a second. "Yeah... true." Summer came over by us and Jake put his arm around her. "All I'm saying, it's a 50/50 situation right about now."

"What is a 50/50 situation?" Summer said.

I looked over at Jake with a look that said, 'shut up'. He didn't understand it and started to talk. "Oh, it's just a 50/50 chan.."

"It's a 50/50 chance if Jake is going to have his balls drop and ask you out on a real date finally." I cut Jake off before he could finish his sentence.

"Dude, Stai zitto!" Which was Italian for, shut up.

Summers face got really red. "Oh..." She took a drink of her beer. "50/50 chance huh?" Summer said.

'Uh-oh', I thought to myself. Jake was giving me a look that was a mix of relieft and that he was going to kill me for that. "I'm just kidding." I butted in trying to make the awkward situation go away. "50/50 chance that Jayden and his ex shows up at the bar."

"Ohh.." Summer said and looked between the two of us. I smiled and so did Jake. She kinda just shrugged and went back over by Jess and Nate.

"Dude, I owe you a nut shot for that." Jake said.

I covered myself. "Dude, sorry."

"I'll get you back, don't worry." Jake said and raised his beer to mine to cheers it. I cheered him reluctantly.

We went back over to the group and started to pack up since the game was about to start it was almost time to head to the bar. Once we got to the bar it was pretty packed. Everyone was cheering for State. We ended up winning the game. It was close but we scored the final touchdown with 2 minutes to go. Once the game was over our group split up. Jake, Jess, and me headed back to the house. Summer went back to her place cause she said she wanted to finish up some stuff for school before we went out that night. Nate tried to get us to come out with Chase and him instead of going to the party but we told him we'd text him if the party was lame. On our way back my phone was vibrating again. I checked it and was from my brother Kyle.

Kyle: That was a close game! Did you go to it? I can't wait to be there next year. Any word on when our first training camp is?

Tyler: Yeah it was! Didn't go, thought I was going to have practice this morning but we got lucky. Only underclassmen. HA! No word on training camp. I know you miss me baby bro!

Kyle: Well that and I want you to hook me up with one of your friends.

Tyler: Yeah. They're going to be interested in a high school senior! haha...

Kyle: Shut up. Just checking in. I'll let you go, call home this week. Miss ya.

Tyler: Will do. Tell mom and dad l/y.

Kyle: Will do, and you too.

I love that he was excited to come to state. It's going to be great having my brother here. He's one of my best friends, so we'll have a good time. We were almost home when I felt my phone vibrate again. It was Jayden. I sat down on the stoop in front of the house and told them I'd meet them inside.

Jayden: Sweet fucking gaem!! My voice is horse as hell and I'm a bit tipsy. haha... I need to be with the ex around!! Actually... it hasn't been too bad... yet. Sorry couldn't make it too the bar. I'll see ya guys tonight.

I just shook my head. Man his ex must be terrible if he's dreading them being around. I still didn't understand why he even let them come visit in the first place. I thought about texting him back, but just left it as is. Whatever we're not good enough of friends for me to worry about it that much.

"Who was that?" Jess asked.

I closed the door and sat next to her on the couch. "Jayden. Just said something about his ex not being that bad. And saying sorry he couldn't make it to the bar." She had put in a season of 'Friends' on the tv.

"You have nothing to worry about."

"I'm not worried. We're just friends. If anything, we're like acquaintances." I told her, almost trying to convince myself as much as her. Truth be told I was starting to like Jaydens friendship.

Jess looked over at me giving me a look like she didn't believe me. "If you say so..."

I nodded. "Oh! Is this that one episode, 'The One Where Rosita Dies'? I love this episode!"

Jess laughed. "Yep!"

"I love the first scene when Rachel is like, 'Come on Rosita, us chicas gotta stick together.' and the chair breaks and she's like, 'You bitch.' it gets me every time."

We were both laughing at the episode. "We should name our t.v. Stevie." Jess joked around.

Jess and me watched a few more episodes on the disc laughing at exactly the same moments. Jake was upstairs working on some homework which I'm going to assume is code for nap. It's not like Jake to do homework on a Saturday unless he had waited for the last minute to take a test for a class online. Today was turning out to be fun. Jess and me spending quality time together just her and me. Around five o'clock we walked to Subway to get some food. The line was out the door cause they were selling $5.00 footlongs for $2.50 since we won the game. I picked up Jake a sub and we headed back to the house. The rest of the day went by pretty quickly.

Around 8 we started getting ready. Nate had convinced us to meet at his place to pregame before we went our seperate ways. I jumped in the shower before Jake got in. While I was in the shower Jake and me were talking about the game earlier.

"Hey Ty..." Jake said. "Thanks."

I was washing my hair and stuck my head out of the shower to see what he was talking about.

"I mean about that little comment about asking Summer out on a date. I've been trying to get the courage but I just thought she only wanted to keep it hooking up sorta thing."

"What did I do though?" I asked. "I thought I made it awkward."

"Oh you did..." Jake said. "But at least now, I know she isn't completely opposed to it."

I put my head back in the shower. "Well yeah. Come on. You know she likes you."

"Yeah I do. But I think now, I'm really going to ask her out."

"It's about time!" I said to him as I finished washing my hair.

I heard Jake say something else but couldn't make it out. Then I heard the toilet flush and felt the shower change temperatures from warm to freezing. I yelped and scooted away from the shower head.

"Jake!"

"That's payback for earlier."

"You just thanked me for that!" I grabbed my towel and stepped out of the shower.

Jake was standing there in his boxers holding his towel. "Well it was that or a ball tapper, I felt like this was the better option."

I shook my head out and the water in my hair flew off me like a wet dog. Some of it got on Jake. "Deal."

I went back into my room and tried to figure out what I wanted to wear. I thought, hell it's a frat party, I could wear some gym shorts and a t shirt and fit right in. I decided I would wear this graphic tee I bought while I was in Chicago from this local store on the north side when we went there last year for Cinco. I really liked it, the store takes designs from local and national graphic artist and screen prints them on shirts. The one I put on was a dark blue tee with a light blue design, the piece was called, The Midnight Forest or something. Either way it was a pretty sweet shirt I thought. I grabbed a pair of jeans I just bought a few days ago from the buckle, they were medium blue with a lighter wash over parts of them. I put on my black and grey Nike Oncore shoes and checked myself out in the mirror. I thought I was looking pretty good. I went into the bathroom to do my hair. Jake had a towel around his waist and was brushing his teeth.

"Ow, ow!" He hooted. "You aren't playing no games with the ex-boyfriend being in town tonight are you?"

I smiled and put my hair product in my hand. "What can I say?" I joked back at him.

"You look good bud. Don't be trying to upstage me tonight though!" He joked as he walked out of the bathroom.

I did my hair and went downstairs. Summer had just got there, Jess and her were putting on their make-up. I felt a little nervous about going to the party for some reason. I grabbed my phone and sent Nate a text telling him we'd be over soon. The girls came out of Jess' room. They were both looking cute tonight. Jess was wearing a white tank top shirt with lace that was pretty tight around her chest area and some dark denim jean shorts and black high heels and Summer was wearing a black top that was cut pretty low and dark checkered short shorts and black heels too. They were looking hot I thought. We were waiting on Jake before we headed to Nate's house. I ran upstairs to try and get him to hurry and grab my keys since I was driving tonight. Jake finally came out and he was wearing a green and blue flannel button up and dark blue jeans with a little bit of a destroyed area around his thigh on one of his legs.

"He can I borrow a pair of your flops?"

"Sure. Hurry up. We're going to go play a round of pong at Nates before we head over to Jaydens."

"Can I use your cologne too?"

"Yeah, yeah. Bring it, so we can be fresh going into both places." I shut off the lights in walked down stairs.

"You ladies ready yet?" Summer called up to us.

"Quiet women! I'm trying to look good for you guys." Jake said as he walked down behind me. "You two look nice." He gave Summer a hug.

"Alright, let's go." We walked out to the garage and headed to Nates place.

Driving down High St. there were a lot of people out tonight. Probably more than usual since we won the football game tonight. Once we got to Nates place I parked and we headed in. Chase and Nate were in their front room watching some TV when came in. Both were already dressed to go out.

"Hey, about time you guys got here." Chase said to us.

Chase was Nate's roommate and probably his closest friend here at State. He's a good guy. Definitely the ying to Nates yang. Chase was about 6 foot tall white with green eyes and brown hair. He styled it similar to Rob Pattinson. He was on his schools lacrosse team in high school and does a few intramural sports here at state, so he's in pretty good shape. Chase was wearing a bright blue military button up with the sleeves rolled up and buttoned and a hair of dark jeans.

"Hey buddy, what's up?" I said, we shook hands.

The girls gave him hugs and Jake shook his hand. "Lets' get this game started!" Summer said.

"Thatta girl!" Chase said.

Nate went into the kitchen to grab a few beers and cups. Nate was wearing a green and black stripped henley tshirt and some dark grey shorts. While we waited while they set up the table we talked about the game. Nate tried again to get us to go out with them to the fishbowl but again I told him we'd text him if we didn't have fun. We changed the subject and started playing. The Nate & Jess were on a team and they played Jake and Summer first. Chase and me called winners and decided to team up.

"I got to tell you bud. I can't seal the deal ever when I play beer pong." I told Chase.

"I know, I've seen you play." Chase laughed at me. "Lets' try and break that little losing streak you got going tonight."

I just shrugged at him, "I'll try."

We walked away from the game to go and grab a beer for our game. "So Nate told me he came out to you." Chase said to me.

I dropped the beer on the ground when he said that. "Wha... oh... yeah." I was caught off guard.

"Glad you could be supportive of him. He was a mess earlier this summer with the whole Heath situation. Eric didn't make matters any better." Chase said.

"Oh yeah?" I said.

"Yeah, he wasn't rude about it, but you could tell he was trying to force Nate to admit what was going on. I could tell he wasn't ready though."

"Yeah. That's pretty fucked up..." I said. "I'm glad he has us here."

"Yeah, I didn't know what to do for a few days. He was pretty beat up, then he was rehabbing his shoulder too and he skipped about 4 days of rehab before I had to force him out of his room to go to rehab."

I felt a little bad. I didn't realize how bad the situation was. I didn't talk to Nate as much as I probably should've this summer. I mean, he knew we get busy, especially with training. I talked to him a few times on facebook to ask him about his shoulder and how things were going out here. I felt bad knowing that he was too scared to say anything to him. We grabbed our beers and headed back into the dining room where they were playing beer pong.

I looked back at Chase and told him, "I wish I could've been here." I looked over and Nate and Jess were hugging as they just beat Summer and Jake. "I see you couldn't seal the deal either Jake." I teased Jake.

"Shut it Ty. Your horrible beer pong skills have rubbed off on me." Jake said back to me.

"Yeah..." Chase said.

We set up for another game of beer pong. It was Chase and me versus Nate and Jess. We started off strong and were beating Nate and Jess then we got down to the final cup. I was feeling a little nervous since I suck at making that last cup.

"Lets see you wrap it up Ty." Jake said.

I looked over at him, "Shut up."

"I don't get it." Jess said. "You can compete every week during the season with no problem, but you can't finish the last cup of beer pong."

We all laughed at that. Jess went and got the last ball in. Nate and her hugged. I faked being upset and put my head down. Chase rubbed my neck and told me we'll get them next time. I checked the time to see if it was time to head out. It was about to be 11 so I figured we better get going. Chase and Nate decided they would come with us so I texted Jayden to see if that was a problem. He told us just to tell them that they were with us and he'd let the guys at the door know.

Since I drive a Mazda Tribute SUV it wasn't too tight of a fit. Jess sat up front with me, and the guys sat in the back with Summer sitting on Jakes lap. I wasn't drunk, or even buzzed, but I was thankful for the tinted windows I had. I didn't want to risk getting pulled over with everyone sitting like that. Luckily Nate lived only a few minutes from Fraternity Row and Jaydens frat. Once we found parking we walked up to the house and saw everyone entering through the back. Now I was familiar with the frat system, but like I said it was something that really didn't interest me, but Jaydens fraternity's house was definitely one of the bigger ones on campus. Walking up to it was slightly intimidating. They had a huge front yard area to walk up. Then when you got to the house it was this huge, brick building with white colonial pillars at the entrance and old white colonial style railings on the balcony's and porches. I sent Jayden a text to let him know we were at the door. As we were walking up to the house I felt my phone vibrate.

Jayden: Hey, just the brothers at the door my name and show them this message. I didn't make it down there yet to tell them to add your two friends to the list.

'Great' I thought. Hopefully we wouldn't have any problems getting into the house. We walked up and the two guys at the door didn't want to let Chase and Nate in since they weren't on the list. I showed them the text message that Jayden had sent me. They didn't believe it was from him till one of them checked their phone and saw it was from the same number. I was already slightly annoyed with that, and I could tell the other guys were too. Jess and Summer were just looking around at all the guys or talent as they referred to them at times. We walked in and could hear the music coming from upstairs. Walking into the house, you could tell that this was definitely a house some of the guys at least tried to take care of. Once you walked in there was a giant staircase with landing that stopped at the second floor and then continued up to the third floor. There were a lot of people gathering between the front foyer area and the second floor landing that looked over the first floor. We walked up stairs and back towards where the music was coming from. I tried looking for Jayden and couldn't find him. There were a decent amount of people there and the lights were low so that made it difficult to find him.

Jake put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Ty, I'm going to need a drink, my buzz is wearing off fast in here."

"I agree. Lets' go find the beer first." I said. I turned to Jess, "Did you see Jayden anywhere?"

Jess shook her head, "Should I text him?"

"Yeah." I said.

We got to the keg and the brothers were pouring the beer. We got our drinks and headed towards the doors that lead to a balcony outside. A few of the guys came up to us and told us, 'Happy Rush', and that they'd come talk to us soon. We did our best to fake interest in rushing. Jake noticed they were playing flip cup on the balcony and pulled us towards them.

"Hey man, anyone got winner on this?" Jake said.

One of the guys at the table said, "Nah, bro, you guys got winner then."

I checked to see how many people were playing and noticed it was 5 on 5. Since there was only 4 guys one of the girls were going to have to play I thought. We watched the other two groups play around and we walked up. They were playing a little differently than I'm used to. Instead of a shot of beer in a cup, almost the whole cup was filled. I shook my head and thought it was going to be a long night if we played a few rounds like this. Summer decided to play. So it was Nate, Chase, Summer, Jake and then me. I wasn't too worried, I was usually really good at flip cup. One of the brothers told Jess she could be the judge and tell us when to start.

"Ready..." Jess said. "1... 2... 3!"

With that Nate went first and so did the other guy. They both flipped at the same time and it was on to Chase. Chase had a little trouble but got it over but the other team was a cup ahead of us. Summer went and chugged her beer like a champ.

"That's my girl!" Jake said excitedly.

Right after he said that, Summer put her cup down and flipped it over no problem. The two of us were neck and neck when Jake went. It took him a few tries but he got his cup over. The other team was at their last cup and it was my turn too. I chugged the cup and put it down on the table. The other guy was having problems landing his cup. I flipped mine once and it fell off the table.

I bent down to pick it up quickly "Don't you bitch out!" I heard Chase say down to me. I placed it on the table and tapped the cup. It landed upside and with that our team won. We exploded into a victory cheer. The guys on the other team reached over and gave us a high five.

"Coming in at the clutch!" I heard a familiar voice say from behind me. I turned around and saw it was Jayden. "Very nice." Jayden said to me with a big smile on his face. He was wearing a pair of shorts and t-shirt with his fraternity letters on it. He had a baseball cap on that was cocked a little off center. I could see his frat letters on a necklace that he wears hanging out of his tshirt.

"You know these guys?" The guy across from me asked Jayden.

"Yeah, I invited them. I work with the Ref... " Jayden pointed down to Jess and waved high. "... and Tyler here is my friend from my marketing class."

"I was wondering who they were for a second. But I didn't care. They're pretty good at flip cup, so they're friends of mine." Jaydens friend said.

"Oh sorry." Jayden stuck out his hand on my shoulder, "This is my big brother... well not my real big brother, but you know, my fraternity big brother, Scooter." Jayden said. I shook his hand. "Scooter, this is Tyler, that's his best buddy Jake, and their friends Summer, someone I haven't met but I'm going to say, Chase." Chase stuck out his hand to shake Scooter and Jayden's hand. "Then that is Nate, and that's my co-worker Jess."

We all said, 'hi' to Scooter. Jayden gave Summer and Jess a hug and shook the rest of the guys' hands. Scooter introduced his friends and said we should play another round. Jake and Scooter walked into the party to go grab some more beers. I loved that about Jake, he could instantly make friends with just about anyone. Nate and Chase were talking with Summer and Jess and me were talking to Jayden.

"So where's your ex. I'm dying to meet them. "Jess said. "I want to see the girl who could cheat on you."

Jayden took a drink of his beer and rolled his eyes, "Oh... they're around here somewhere with their friends."

I felt a twinge of jealousy after hearing that. "So was today horrible?" I asked.

Jayden smirked, "A little. I've been drinking since the football game so it's been bearable." He laughed.

A few minutes later, Jake and Scooter came back with the beer and lined them up on the table. I noticed they had 12 cups and there was only 5 of us who played last time. Scooter said he bought 2 extra so Jess and Jayden could play. At first Jayden tried to not play saying, he was also trying to be responsible since it was a Rush party and he was Rush Chair. Scooter was having none of it. The guy who had decided Jess could be the ref was the one she was going to face off against. We lined up, Jess, Nate, Chase, Summer, Jake, and me. I would be going against Jayden.

Jayden looked up at me, "I hope you're ready, I'm the clutch guy in the house for flip cup."

"I think I've got it." I said.

Jayden smirked and winked at me, "We'll see."

With that the game had started. Everyone went till it came down to the final two people on each team. Jayden had about a half second start ahead of me. I chugged the cup of beer faster than I probably ever had and put the cup down. I coughed a bit and started my turn. Jayden had missed his first couple tries, so did I. I put the cup down almost at the same time I saw Jayden flip his cup, I flipped mine too but was too slow. Jayden's cup landed upside down and his team won.

"Dammit Ty!" Chase said playfully... well almost playfully.

"Sorry! I choked!" I said. I was mad for like half a second. The guys on the other team boasted a bit to us. We laughed and everyone started talking.

Jayden came over to me. "Don't worry. I'm a pro."

"Yeah, you got lucky." I said. I was feeling pretty buzzed after those two games. "I'm just saying, I'd probably beat you if we played again."

"I bet you would..." Jayden laughed. "I've been drinking since noon!"

I laughed, "That's no excuse."

"Well when your ex..." He started to say something but then caught himself. I looked at him questionably. "When you've got unexpected guests like I do. You need to drink."

I smiled and nodded my head understandably. Jess came up to us and was asking about the guy she was talking to. His name was Matt and was one of Jayden's brothers who was also on the rush committee. Jayden said he was good guy and they should talk. Jess nodded her head and said maybe. We continued to talk on the balcony. We heard a howl come from inside the house. We took a look inside and the area where everyone was people had started dancing. They were playing "Sexy Bitch" by David Guetta. Jake and Summer walked past us to go dance. Chase and Nate were talking to Scooter, Matt, and a few of the other guys we were playing beer pong with. Nate was bobbing his head to the beat like he wanted to dance. I thought it was kinda cute.

"So where's your ex at Jayden? I'm starting to think you're lying." Jess said to Jayden half joking, half serious.

"Oh they're here. I don't know. I'm trying to not pay too much attention to them."

"Can we meet them?" Jess asked.

Jayden sorta frowned and nodded. "Okay, okay. I'll go look for them. I'll be right back." He took off his cap and tussled his hair and put it back on backwards. "I'll be back in a sec."

Jess and me sat out there on the balcony talking. Nate had come over. "Where'd Jayden go?"

"To finally go get his ex. I want to meet them." Jess said. I could tell she was feeling pretty tipsy cause she was leaning against me for support.

"Them?" Nate asked questioning. "Well lets go get some more beer while we wait for 'them'." We headed inside back to where the alcohol was.

We got our drinks and were looking out at the dance floor. We heard the song change and the party cheered again. I was nodding my head to the song then I realized it was, 'Good Girls Go Bad". Jess got all excited and pulled Nate and me on the dance floor. We ended up finding Jake and Summer who were both dancing. We all were dancing together the whole party was jumping up and down during the chorus. It felt like the floor was moving up and down with us. Some girl randomly came up to Nate and started dancing with her. He gave me and Jess a look that said, 'Help me!'. We laughed at him. This girl was obviously wasted and was dancing horribly on Nate. He tried to get away and eventually gave up and just kept dancing with her. One of her friends came over and sorta pushed her away and started dancing with Nate. We laughed. The song changed again with another cheer from the crowd. This time, 'California Girls' came on.

"Tyler it's your song!" Jess said.

I laughed at her, "I'm no girl!"

"But you're from California!" Jess said. We kept on dancing. Jess turned around and we were facing each other while we danced. She was singing the lyrics. I couldn't help but crack up at her.

"You can travel the world, but nothing comes close to the golden coast..." she sang. "Once you party with us, you'll be falling in love..." I could help but laugh at her. I was feeling a little drunk myself. I looked over and saw Chase had found himself a girl to dance with as well. The song kept playing and the girls were all going crazy. During the_, "oh-oh"_ part everyone joined in and sang it out loud. "California boys, they're undeniable, fine. fresh. fierce. you've got it on lock," Jess continued singing along with the song to me. Summer and Jake had heard her and were cracking up. "West coast represent, now put your hands up..." Jess grabbed my hands and put them in the air making a, W with them. The rap part of the song and I felt someone come from behind and start dancing or jumping up and down with me.

It was Jayden, I just laughed and shook my head. "We've got a California boy here!" He shouted out loud. Some of the people around us cheered. "Tone, tanned, fit, and ready. Turn it up cause it's getting heavy, wild, wild west coast these are the girls I love the most." Jayden started rapping with Snoop during the rap part. I felt so embarrassed and my face was probably beet red. The song ended and changed to a Sam Adams song. All the guys started cheering. I was starting to sweat in the house and headed towards the doors. Jess and Jayden followed me.

"God it's hot in there."

"Yeah, we've got the a/c on but it's only going to do so much with the doors being open and all those people in there. You guys having fun?" Jayden asked.

"Yeah! You need to introduce me to again to your friend Jayden." Jess said.

"Which one, Scooter? He's got a girlfriend." Jayden laughed cause Jess was definitely a little drunk at this point.

Jess shook her head, "No, the other one. Matt."

"Oh well, it looks like we won't have to wait too long." Jayden was saying as Matt walked towards us.

"Hey guys, what's up? I saw you guys dancing inside, you look you're having a good time." Matt said.

I nodded my head. I looked over at Jayden who had a big smile on his face. "Yeah, did you see Jess during, 'California Girls'? She was tearing it up."

"Yeah she was." I said.

"Matt laughed, "Yeah I saw that. You want to get a drink?"

"Sure." Jess said. She looked back at me to make sure it was cool, I nodded my head.

I just shook my head as she walked off. I looked over at Jayden and he was sitting there looking of in the distance down at the street. Some guy yelled up to him. He raised his glass and nodded his head.

"You cool?" I asked him.

"Yeah, sorry." Jayden yawned really big, "Maybe this marathon drinking is starting to get to me. I'm a little tired."

"Well how long do you think the party is going to go till?"

"We'll probably shut it down around 2:30 or so." He looked down at his watch. "So about another hour or so."

I took a drink of my beer. "Did you find your ex?"

"Yeah..." Jayden took a drink of his beer. "They're wasted over in the other room. I told them I wanted to introduce them to some friends, but they weren't having it."

I nodded my head. Even at this point I couldn't help but feel like there was something Jayden wasn't being honest with me about. He never mentioned his exes' name or anything. I was starting to get curious about the situation only because he seemed to avoid it so often.

"Hey, you want to grab another beer and go somewhere a little more quiet?" Jayden asked me.

"Uhh..." I hesitated, "Sure." We walked back in and then headed to the keg. Jayden poured me and him a beer from the keg. The keg looked like it was about to die. He was getting nothing but foam. Jake saw us and came over by the two of us.

"Hey, need some help." Jake asked.

"Yeah, we were supposed to have a few brothers manning the kegs but apparently they've decided to go and get wasted." Jayden said.

Jake pumped the keg while Jake tipped it to try and get some beer out of it. They finally filled up three cups one for the each of us. I asked Jake where Summer was, he nodded his head towards the balcony. He told me Chase and Nate were with her. The three of us were talking for a few minutes when Scooter walked up. He leaned into Jayden's ear.

"Son of a bitch." Jayden said. "I'll be right back." Jayden and Scooter walked away. Jayden looked pissed.

I looked over at Jake. "I wonder what happened."

"Return of the ex?" Jake laughed.

I laughed at him and the two of us walked back out to the balcony where there were a few people As we were walking out I saw Jess and Matt talking in the corner. They were looking like they were into each other. I was happy for Jess. Her last boyfriend really fucked her over and she was a mess for awhile. It was good to see her happy again.

"Hey buddy, where's your friend at?" Chase asked.

I shrugged, "I have no idea. We were getting some beer and big, Scooter came up and said he had to talk to him and then Jayden looked pissed and walked off."

"Sounds like relationship stuff. I'd keep away from him." I looked at Chase questionably. I hadn't told him I was gay so I assumed Nate had. I didn't care too much, partially because I was drunk and partially because I knew if Nate could trust him, I could.

"Dude, it's getting late, you almost ready to go?" Nate asked.

"Yeah. Lets finish our beers and head out." I said.

Summer was now leaning against Jake, "Yeah! I'm ready for bed." We all looked over at Jake who had a smile on his face. "Can't wait to cuddle with this guy right here." The group of us guys busted up laughing.

I finished my beer and decided I would head in and tell Jayden we're leaving. I walked up to Jess to let her know we were going to head out. She gave me a look that could kill, but then quickly said it was cool. I asked Matt if he had seen Jayden. He pointed towards the hall way that led to some of the bedrooms. He said Jayden's was the fourth door on the left. I walked down the hall and there were a few people in the hall way talking and leaning against the doors. I saw that Jayden's door was open and got a smile on my face. As I was about to walk up to it, Jayden saw me out of the corner of his eye and slammed the door shut. I stopped dead in my tracks. It sounded like there was arguing going on in there. I sat there for a second and wondered if I should say something or knock on the door.

"You don't want to be in there right now. Those two will be fighting for awhile." Some random girl who was leaning against wall with another guy.

"Whose in there with Jayden?" I said.

The girl looked at me, then at her friend. "Oh, my drunk... STUPID friend." She said with emphasis on the word stupid. "Otherwise known as his ex. Those two are just not made for each other but my friend thinks otherwise. " She laughed.

"Oh... " I said. I looked down at the ground. "Well... Jayden seems like a good guy. I'm sure he'll figure it out with her."

She raised her eyebrow at me. The door to Jayden's room started to open then slammed shut again. We both winced at the sound of that. "Yeah... her..." the girl said.

I took my phone out and sent Jayden a text,

Tyler: Hey, just wanted to say thanks for inviting me tonight... I had a lot of fun. Sorry about the girlfriend problems... -later.

"Uh.. if he comes out, just let him know Ty left." I told the girl.

"If his ex stops being a drunk... will do. Ty." She stuck her hand out to shake mine. I shook her hand, "Oh your hands are rough!" she said. Being a gymnast tears your hands apart when you're on the bars, rings, and horse. I wear grips but they're still pretty bad.

"Yeah, it happens from the sport I do.... have a good night." I told her. I nodded at her friend who looked like he was going to pass out.

As I was walking out towards where the party was starting to die down at I felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out thinking it was Jayden but it wasn't. It was Jake.

Jake: Jayden's brothers shut the party down so we headed outside. We're by your car. See you there.

I walked past the area where they had the majority of the party. The once crowded area was not dying down. I saw Scooter and sorta waved him a 'goodbye' and kept walking. I was starting to lose my buzz and the events from tonight were starting to play in my head. I was kind of annoyed at the whole situation. Mostly because, I don't understand why Jayden acts like that with his ex. And who the hell was his fucking ex?! I was annoyed that it bothered me that his ex was in town and he slammed the door when he saw me walking up. I walked out the front door. A few of the brothers were saying bye to everyone and telling the guys to rush the frat. I started walking out to my car when I felt my phone vibrate and heard my name shouted. I turned around and it was Jayden standing up on the balcony.

"Ty. Stay there. I need to talk to you." Jayden said.

I shook my head telling him not to. "Don't worry about it."

"Shut up. I'll be down in a second." A few seconds later Jayden was coming out the front door. "Hey, I need to get away from here. You mind if I head back to your place with you guys?"

I had to think about it for a second. Then I decided, what the hell, "Sure... why not. It's probably crowded in my car though. I've got all of us."

"I'll ride in the trunk if I have to." He laughed.

We walked off away from the house. I looked over at him while we walked down the street to my car. He looked frustrated, I figured I would ask him later. As we walked up to my car I started it with the remote and unlocked the doors. As we got closer I realized Jayden's friend, Matt was with Jess. Crap, I thought, that's way too many people for my car.

"Someone, or two people are going to have to get in the back."

"Nice car!" Jayden said to me.

"Thanks."

"We should all fit in here no problem."

"Jayden what are you doing here too? Your drunken ex finally get to be too much?" Matt laughed as Jess and him climbed in the back.

I looked at Jess and laughed, "Way to keep it classy, girl." We all got in and headed to Nate's place to drop off them off. I was making sure I didn't speed or do anything that could catch a cops attention. I was coming off my buzz, but the last thing I needed to do was get pulled over by a cop right now. We dropped off Chase and Nate and headed back towards the house. As we were driving down High St. to my house Jess saw a White Castle and made me pull over to pick her up some food. We decided just to get a crave case so we could all eat. Waiting for the food to be cooked I thought my bladder might explode cause I had to use the bathroom so bad. We pulled up to the window and I reached for my wallet to pay for the food but Jayden stopped me.

"I got it." He said and handed me some cash. "It's the least I could do after the way the party ended." He smirked.

I paid for the food and we headed back to the house. Once we got to the house I passed out waters and we all sat around the living room and ate. Jake put in The Hangover so we could watch while we ate. Eventually Jess and Matt were the first to head to their room. It was funny when Matt got up to head into Jess' room. Jayden and him shared a handshake and a half hug. It was the middle of the movie when I looked over at Jake to see if he was still awake. Summer had passed out on his lap. I had wanted to try and talk to Jayden so I kind of nodded up to the upstairs and Jake finally for the first time in years understood me when I 'talked with my eyes'.

Jake stretched out and nudged Summer, "Let's go to sleep Sum. I'm tired."

"But I'm comfortable here." She said sleepily.

Jake rolled his eyes, "Fine, be difficult." He scooped her up off her lap. "We're going to head to bed...." He looked over at Summer who had curled up to his shoulder. "Just. Sleep." He said with a smile on his face.

"Night guys." Jayden said.

"Night guys. Hey Jayden, stick around for breakfast this time will ya?" Jake said as he walked up the stairs.

We sat there in quiet watching the movie. I saw it was about 3:45 and the birds were starting to chirp. Jayden's phone kept vibrating and it was starting to annoy me. He finally just turned it off. "Sorry about that..." He took his cap off and ran his hand threw his hair. "This is the last time my ex will be visiting me."

"I bet." I sounded a bit more frustrated than I even thought I was.

Jayden took a deep breath. "Yeah..."

We went back to watching the movie. I would try and sneak a peek over at Jayden when he was watching. I couldn't tell if he was tired, or stressed but he didn't look himself. The movie finished and I turned off the tv. It was 4:15, and it was starting to get lighter outside. 'I'm going to hate myself tomorrow' I thought to myself.

"So you want to talk about it?" I asked him, surely I was going to regret this if it turned bad.

Jayden looked at me, then away, "What's there to say? You meet someone, fall in love with, a year and a half into the relationship you find out they've been cheating on you for the past 2 months." Jayden took off his cap and tossed it on the coffee table. "You know, I tried to be the best boyfriend possible."

"I'm sure you do." I said.

"So when I found out, I broke up with my ex immediately. But you know, it's hard, your first love. It's hard to get over that..." Jayden trailed off. "I think though after this weekend I am over it." He smiled over at me.

I smiled back at him. "I would hope so. You're a nice guy Jayden. You deserve better." I put my arm on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I didn't know what I was doing. Once I realized my hand was there a little longer than it should've been I moved my hand away immediately.

"Let's change the subject." Jayden kicked off his flip flops and looked at me. "So... would you be freaked out if I told you that I 'youtubed' you?" Jayden said with a smile.

I laughed at him, "You didn't."

"Well not just you, I searched our teams gymnastics team, I wanted to see just how good you were." Jayden said.

I felt myself turning red, "I'm embarrassed."

"You shouldn't be! You're so talented. Like, I've watched gymnastics like during the summer games and whatever, but I always think like, wow, those guys are crazy to be able to do all that." Jayden was looking right at me. "But like after I checked out a few of the youtube videos, I was just taken aback. I thought, wow, I know someone who can do all that stuff."

"I can't do all that. I'm good, but I'm not Olympic good." I cut him off.

Jayden shook his head, "Bullshit. You're pretty awesome. All of you guys are, Jake too. But I'll admit, I did find one video where I couldn't stop laughing. I showed it to Scooter too."

I immediately knew which one he was talking about, "The one with our teams bloopers?" I asked. Every year for the post season dinner we have our coaches put together a gag real of mess ups and us just being stupid around the gym. I forgot that they post them to the teams youtube account.

Jayden laughed, "That's the one!" I just shook my head at him. "When it showed you doing some trick.."

"Release move." I said.

"Whatever, doing something over the bar and you completely miss it and crash down to the mat on your stomach. I died... well I was concerned for a second but when you got back up I laughed."

"One of my finer moments."

"Or there was the one where they showed you doing a vault and you had too much power and like rolled out of your landing." Jayden was laughing pretty hard right now.

"Yeah.. yeah... eat it up." I told him. I got up to head up to my room. "Well I'm beat. I don't think it's creepy you've youtubed me, my parents practically broadcast that to everyone they know. You could probably find my brother on there too." I stretched out. I pulled my tshirt off. "I'm going to head up to bed though. I'll bring you down some covers and a pillows in a sec."

"Sounds good." Jayden said. He laid down on the couch.

I went up to my room to change and had the door cracked. I was slipping on a pair of shorts when I heard someone walking up the stairs. "Jayden is that you? If you need to use the bathroom it's to the left at the other end of the hallway." I threw my clothes in my hamper and turned to grab the spare covers from the extra bed room.

I opened the door the rest of the way and was startled to see Jayden standing there without a shirt on. "Hey. What's up Jayden?" I looked over at his chest. This was the first time I had seen Jayden without a shirt on. He had a flat stomach and his chest wasn't as defined as mine. Jayden wasn't a small guy buy any means. He had a nice average build for a 21 year old guy. He had a light amount of chest hair on his chest and went down his stomach. It looked like he shaved it but it was a light brushing of hair that looked good on him. I pulled my eyes away so I wasn't staring at him.

Jayden was staring at me. Neither of us said anything. "You have a pair of shorts I could borrow?"

I caught myself staring at his shirtless body. I looked away quickly, "Uh yeah..." I turned around and reached into one of my dresser drawers, I suddenly forgot where I kept things and started opening the wrong drawers. I finally opened the right one and pulled a pair of shorts out. "Here" I turned around and said with a smile.

"Thanks..." Jayden said. He looked down at the shorts, "These seem a little small." I looked down at them and realized I handed him some of my shorts I had to wear when I compete.

"Sorry." I turned around quickly and grabbed another pair. "Sorry, you can throw those on the bed. Those are my competition shorts."

Jayden nodded his head and turned around. He walked into the spare bedroom closed the door and changed into my shorts. He came out holding his shorts he was wearing at the party. "You mind if I leave these here?"

"Nah, you can toss them on the chair over there." I said.

I was suddenly aware of the fact that Jayden, the guy I liked was standing in my room wearing a pair of my shorts and nothing else. I could see his waistband to his boxers peaking out the top of my shorts. I turned around so I wouldn't stare at him and sat down on my bed. Jayden was standing in the doorway. He didn't say anything. I turned my ipod on and switched it to a Kris Allen song, The Truth.

"I love this song." Jayden said. "I can play it on the guitar sorta." I looked at him.

"You play the guitar?" I asked him.

"I'm a man of many talents." He joked.

I laughed at him, "You still feeling drunk?"

"A little buzzed nothing, major." Jayden said. "It's the elephant in the room
And we pretend that we don't see it, It's an avalanche that looms above our heads
And we don't believe it." Jayden sang along quietly with the song.

I smiled at him singing, "I've got my own Kris Allen impersonator performing for me in my door."

"Shut it." Jayden took a step further. He looked around my room still singing the song, " Honesty is honestly the hardest thing for me right now..." Jayden stopped at picture that was on my wall.

It was a picture of Jake and me after Nationals last year when the team came in second. My brother caught a picture of the two of us giving each other a high five looking thrilled that we had come in second as a team. It was the first time in 3 years that we had placed higher than fourth.

"That's a good picture." Jayden said.

"Thanks, my brother, Kyle took it."

"Ty, where was this taken?" He was pointing to a picture that I couldn't make out. I got up out of my bed.

"What's taken where?"

"This..." He was pointing to a picture of Kyle, Jake, and me. It at a dinner that my parents had taken us to after Kyle got an early recruitment scholarship to compete here at State.

"Oh that was when Kyle got his early recruitment letter to compete for State here. We all went out to dinner after it." I told him. "It was a good time."

"So you know when I said downstairs that I knew it was finished between my ex and me?" Jayden put the photo back down and turned around.

I realized I was really close to him. "Yeah."

"So we broke up in June. I think I'm ready to completely move on at this point. Do you think it's too soon?"

"No... but I've never really been, "in love". I've always had my training, school, and friends. Like I told you at the coffee shop. I didn't really have the time for that kinda thing. I still don't know if even now, if I do have the time if something was to come up with someone."

"Oh?" Jayden looked at me a bit confused. "I just think, I don't know. I think, like we've tried to make it work. I just couldn't get past the cheating." Jayden walked back towards the door. "I just think... maybe we should move on to other people." He turned around and looked at me.

"If that's what you think you should do, I would do it." I said nonchalantly and sat back down on my bed.

Jayden looked at me for a second. I tried to read him but couldn't. He looked like he was in deep concentration. "Well, I'm just thinking, maybe there might be someone I might be more interested in. Someone I'd like to get to know more. But things are complicated."

I felt a hot flash run through my body. He couldn't be talking about me, could he? No he's not. He's wasted, he asking me as a friend for advice I told myself. It had to be that. I didn't know what to say. "I don't know Jayden." I told him. I sat back on my bed, "Asking me for advice on dating and relationships isn't my strong suit." I yawned, "I don't know enough about it to give you a good answer. My past consist of a few hook ups, nothing major. Do you really think you're over your ex?" I told him. I thought that sounded good.

Jayden sighed, "I think I am." He looked over at me. "It's just hard to tell with this other person."

"You're a little buzzed, and I know I am. I think you should sleep on it." I said.

Jayden took a deep breath. He looked at me, then back down at the floor. "I think I'm going to head to bed. It's been a long day, you want the light off?"

"You don't have to, I'll get up."

"No it's cool... Night Ty." Jayden said as he turned off the light and headed to the door.

I felt like an idiot as I sat there in my bed thinking about everything. I totally fucked that up I told myself. I sat there for a second listening to the music playing, "...My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me So won't you kill me, so I die happy? " As the song continued I realized maybe he was talking about me. I'm not stupid enough to not see the signs. He never mentioned the name of his ex, or call his ex 'her'. I was sitting there in bed, maybe Jayden did like me, he was just afraid to say something? Neither of our lives lends itself to being an out gay male. I'm an athlete for a major university in the country. Jayden is on the executive branch of one of the biggest fraternities on campus who was majorly involved in recruitment. That's why he had to be scared to say something. "...the streets were wet and the gate was locked, So I jumped it, and let you in..." I don't know. I sighed. I just didn't know. It had been a long day and we were drinking heavily. Maybe it was the alcohol messing with my thinking. "And you stood at your door with your hands on my waist, And you kissed me like you meant it, And I knew that you meant it..." I sat there for a second. 'Get up.' I told myself. Though I wanted to move, my legs weren't agreeing with me. I forced myself to sit up in bed. I took a deep breath and walked out of my room.

I got to the stairs when I heard Jayden on the phone. "Yeah, you know, maybe you did fuck up..." there was a break in his talking. He had to be talking to his ex. "But maybe we've had our time?" Another break in talking. I felt guilty for sitting there on the steps listening in. "Look we're both tipsy. Go ahead and crash in my room, Scooter has my key. I'll be back in the morning and we'll talk." The person on the other side of the line was saying something. "Good night... yeah you too."

I inhaled deeply after hearing him say that. I sat at the top of the stairs. I didn't want to move and risk him hearing the floor creek. I sighed and laid back on the second floor landing.

"Fuck..." I heard Jayden sounded exasperated. I sat there for a few minutes. I heard him roll onto his side and cover up.

I waited a few minutes and must've fallen asleep. I felt a nudge on my shoulder by a foot. I looked up, Jake was standing over me, it was still a little dark outside but I could hear the birds chirping loudly now. "Ty, what the hell..." Jake whispered.

I got up off the floor. "Shit... I must've... we'll talk later. Family dinner."

He looked at me confused. "God, I love you man, but you gay guys are confusing sometimes." He was half asleep, half awake. "Nate is running out our back yard and cuddling you, you're passed out half on the stair, half on the floor, and your boyfriend is passed out on the couch."

I was standing in my door frame facing Jake. I was shaking my head, and gave him the finger. "Shut up, he's not my boyfriend." I said to him playfully. "Love ya bud." I turned laid down in my bed.

Jake walked over to my door and stuck his head in. "Love you too Ty." He laughed and closed my door.

To Be Continued!

Hope everyone enjoyed Chapter 3 of Half In, Half Out****! Sorry this chapter took a little longer than the previous ones to be released. Life has been a little crazy lately and I haven't had much time to sit down and write. I would like to thank everyone again for their supportive and enthusiastic emails. Each one makes me that much more excited to continue on the story of Tyler & his friends!

Once again, this is my first attempt at writing a story. So if some parts are a bit clunky I do apologize in advance. Yes I understand that nifty is an erotic story website and that portion of the story is coming. However, I'm enjoying character development & the story, but eventually that will happen as the time calls for it in Tylers life. Right now, I'm finding my groove as a writer since this is the first time I've ever done something like this. I hope you all continue to read my story!

Any questions, comments, feedback is greatly appreciated! You can reach me at, halfin.halfout7@gmail.com

Thank you everyone again!

**** Any use of trademarked, or copyrighted material (i.e. song lyrics, store names, clothing brands, etc), used throughout the story is simply intended to advance the story, setting, and plot along. I take no ownership of any of the aforementioned brands or material.