6. Chapter 6

"Are you ready to party and celebrate? This is supposed to be a get-together, but I think we need to dedicate tonight to you all creaming Alabama."

I raised my fist in the air and lifted my fingers one by one as I ticked off the reasons why Aspen was ridiculous. "First, the Alabama game happened last week. Second, we played Texas Tech today and creamed their asses. Fine, they aren't strong this season. Third, we've only played three games, Asp. We have a long way to go."

"Uh, you beat Alabama. Hello?"

I chuckled and raised my hands in mock surrender. "Fair. Whatever you want."

"Yes! We're gonna have grilled chicken, which I've been marinating since last night, jalapeno sausage, potato salad, grilled asparagus, and beer. Lots of beer. Maybe something harder, depending on what the boys bring over. Knowing Ethan, he'll probably make up the drink recipes as he goes. Just be prepared for hangover city in the morning."

"Do I really want to visit hangover city? I heard it"s not a nice place, with streets covered in vomit."

Aspen snorted a laugh as he pulled out some onions and celery. "That's funny, dude… and gross. Trust me. It's going to be awesome. But if you don't want to drink so much, you can say no. You're a big boy."

"True enough."

"Although Ethan can be pretty persuasive."

Aspen was shirtless as usual, and when he bent down to retrieve a cutting board under one of the cabinets, his shorts slid low enough to see two dimples above his ass. I couldn't stop staring at them. They looked like two eyes staring back at me. I shook my head as he set everything on the counter next to the knife he had ready.

I leaned against the kitchen"s entryway to observe him as he expertly chopped several stalks of celery. He flitted about like a professional chef, and it was interesting watching him move around and cook so fluidly.

Growing up, we always had someone cleaning and cooking for us since my parents never had the time to do it themselves. Ben and I never learned to cook like this, and I pined a little for Aspen's family, teaching him skills that he could use later in life. The only things my parents needed Ben and me to do were to be active and become doctors. Everything else was inconsequential.

Strangely, I liked watching Aspen cook. It was comforting, as a home should be, with everyone in the kitchen talking while cooking together—like a close family, a family who loved each other.

"What?" he asked.

"What, what?"

He chuckled with his dark eyes always twinkling. "You're staring."

I straightened as the heat on my face burned. "Sorry, I…"

"I'm teasing you, Coop. It's nice to hang out."

"It's just interesting to see you cooking."

His smirk was crooked as he peeled the yellow onion. "I've been told I'm sexy when I cook."

I chuckled. "Is that so?"

"Yep. How do you think my mom got me to cook in the first place? ‘Girls love it when you boys cook for them,'" he said, impersonating who I assumed was his mother. "She wasn't wrong."

"I better take a culinary class next semester, then. Gotta impress the ladies."

His laugh was deep. "Nah, man. I'll teach you. Don't waste your time and money on a class."

"Thanks." I suddenly yawned. "It smells delicious." I thumbed my way toward my room, yawning again. "I'm going to take a quick nap since it was a long day."

"Have fun," he said, waving me off and continuing to finish dinner for tonight.

I stood in front of the mirror in my room, debating between two shirts to wear. One was a fitted pink polo shirt, and the other a loose, short-sleeved cotton button-up in pale blue. I chose the latter but kept it unbuttoned and slipped on tan linen pants. Tonight wasn't anything special, but I got tired of dressing like a slob sometimes, always looking like I came out of the gym. Mom always made sure Ben and I looked our best when not working out or playing football. Fashion was important to Mom, but I tended to ignore it for the most part, doing my best to fit in with the students.

After fingering my cropped hair and tousling the longer parts the way I liked them, I came out to an empty apartment. Where did everyone go? I heard them all in here earlier, talking while I got dressed. I peeked through the blinds that faced the courtyard to find everyone gathered on the lawn, sitting on blankets next to the grill.

Ronnie and Bryce hadn't arrived yet, so I texted them to meet us in the back.

I stepped outside barefoot, loving the cool grass between my toes, and headed in their direction. Something mouthwatering was cooking on the grill, and Aspen had the rest of the food spread out on the picnic table.

Everyone sat on some blankets while Aspen played his acoustic guitar, singing a song. That girl, Lisa, from Spanish class, hung all over him. If they were just friends with benefits, why act like they were more? Maybe they had more of a relationship than I thought.

As usual, he only wore his gym shorts, a puka shell necklace, and several leather bracelets. His dark, curly hair fell in his face as he plucked the melodious cords. God, he was so chill and comfortable in his own skin. I'd never met anyone quite like him.

Surrounding Aspen were three other guys, along with two girls, who I assumed were his bandmates and their girlfriends. This would be the first time I would meet them, and I hoped they were as easy to get along with as Aspen was.

As I approached, Aspen looked up at me and stopped singing and playing. His dark eyes were wide, and his smile slowly broadened while scanning me up and down, which strangely made my heart beat a little faster, though I didn't know why.

"Wow. Coop, you look so… Right. Boundaries."

I smiled at his need to adapt around me, though he didn't have to.

"Hey, everyone, I'm Cooper." It took me years of practice to introduce myself to people without being prompted.

A guy about Aspen"s height with dark blond hair and a black fedora stood and shook my hand. "I'm Mac, backup vocals, and I also play guitar for the band. Nice game destroying Texas Tech, brah."

"Thanks."

"And I'm Zayne," said a dude with hair similar to Aspen's, but his was longer and less curly, and his arms were covered in tattoos. Although, he wasn't nearly as relaxed as Aspen, giving off an intense vibe. A blonde girl with as many tattoos as Zayne hung onto him, looking as intense as he did.

"Zayne is our bassist," Aspen said. "That's his girlfriend, Eliza." I gave them both a smile and a nod.

The third guy stood, shirtless like Aspen, with brown hair piled high on his head in a messy bun, walked toward me, and handed me a flask. "I'm Ethan, the drummer. I've got drinks lined up for tonight. And the other blonde girl is mine. That's Sophie."

"Hey." I waved at Sophie before I took a sniff at the flask. It was pungent and burned my nose hairs, but I took a sip anyway so his friends would accept me. It burned going down, and I tried not to cough, but my eyes watered, and I wheezed. God, that shit was awful.

"Jagermeister. It's the best."

"The fucking worst," I said, coughing. With watering eyes, I smiled and handed the flask back to him.

He burst into laughter. "It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea."

Shortly after that, my buds Ronnie and Bryce showed up with their dates. Ronnie brought his flavor of the week, a stunning girl named Isabel with dark brown curls tumbling down her back and honey skin that glowed. Bryce brought his girlfriend Cassie, who was a tiny, sweet thing. Bryce completely dwarfed her. She kept her dark brown hair in a high ponytail and wore a yellow sundress that complimented her lightly tanned skin. When Cassie saw me, she gave me a hug. Those two had been dating forever, and she had become a good friend of mine, too.

Aspen stood, set aside his guitar, and shook my friends' hands. "It's nice to finally meet you. Your game was amazing. There's beer in the cooler, so help yourself, and dinner will be ready soon."

My friends mumbled their thanks as Aspen went to flip the grilling meat. I stood next to him to check it out as he turned over the chicken and sausages with the tongs. "Damn, that looks good."

"Thanks. It's nice to cook for others. I always cook for my friends whenever we get together, and now my friends list has grown. Life always twists like that, keeping things exciting."

I looked over at our friends, all talking and laughing together, before I looked back at Aspen, flipping meat. "It sure does."

My life had been steady and on a straight trajectory, which had grown stale and boring if not for football and my friends, but knowing Aspen, things had definitely grown more interesting, and I liked it.

After we ate our meal, which tasted so good, we all moved the party inside to listen to some tunes, drink, and chat. Ethan stood in the kitchen, making us a batch of something I was sure could fly a jet across the country while Ronnie and Zayne played Call of Duty, quickly becoming friends and bitching at each other. Ronnie's girlfriend looked bored out of her skull, scrolling through her phone, but Eliza and Sophie brought Cassie into their fold, which was so sweet. That right there showed they were good people.

"I wish you made the drinks tonight," I mouthed to Aspen. "Being a bartender and all."

"Dude, I make drinks all the time. That's like telling a landscaper to make his yard look nice."

I smiled. "Fair. We're going to get trashed, aren't we?"

He snorted a laugh. "Count on it."

Ethan brought out a tray full of shots and set them on the scratched coffee table. "Time to party it up, my dudes."

I grabbed a small glass and looked at it dubiously. "What is it?"

"I dunno. I made it up."

"Everyone put 9-1-1 on auto dial," I deadpanned.

Aspen clapped my back, laughing. "That's funny."

Ethan handed everyone else a shot glass. "Aspen here has a rule that if we get drunk, we have to stay the night. No fucking driving. Or you take an Uber home."

"Nope. No way. I'm outta here." Ronnie's date stood, looking ready to walk out the door while glaring at Ronnie. "You promised me we'd go out to the club tonight. I suffered this little… get-together. Now, it's time to have some fun or take me home, and I'll call my girlfriends."

Ronnie set the glass on the table. "Sorry, dudes. Duty calls. A promise is a promise. Thanks for the good food, Aspen. Later."

I wasn't surprised Ronnie chose sex over us, and no one else seemed to mind that he left, though his date had been pretty rude.

As soon as the door closed, everyone chugged their drinks down except for me. I sniffed mine instead.

Aspen nudged my shoulder. "Live a little, Coop."

"I live, dammit, and I would like to continue to do so, but I guess since you all are still breathing…" I chugged it back, hit with surprising sweetness and smoothness. I drank with my friends sometimes, but doing football practice nearly every day was hard being hungover. "Hey, that's pretty good, actually."

Ethan clapped my back and barked out a laugh. "See! No unaliving tonight."

After a few of those, my head was swimming, and I felt pretty fucking toasty and good. We all talked over each other, telling drunk stories between fits of laughter. Everyone was loose, relaxed, and having fun.

I sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, snuggly tucked next to Aspen with Morpheus on his head, who leaned his drunk ass on my shoulder, playing with Lisa's hair while she was passed out with her head on his lap. Bryce was holding me up on my other side, with Cassie curled up on his lap, resting her sleepy head on his massive shoulder.

"Come on, Coop. Tell us a drunken story," Aspen slurred.

I plucked Morpheus from his head, dropped him on my shoulder, and rubbed his fur with two fingers. He settled in and relaxed his little body while Aspen looked downright starry-eyed at me for petting his damn rodent. I rolled my eyes at him. You'd think I hung the sun and moon with that look by simply being nice to his pet, who could be as chill as Aspen.

"Ugh, fine. I don't usually get trashed enough for good stories, but there was one time in high school. A friend of mine had an older sister who bought us liquor for a party while their parents went out of town. It was during my sophomore year and the first time I got really drunk. We decided to play Truth or Dare, but without the truth. Yeah, we were probably too old for that game—"

"No one is too old for that game," Aspen retorted.

"Do not make me play that again. Ever," I said, giving him a flat look. He soon turned into two Aspens when my eyes crossed from the alcohol, and I had to blink several times to see clearer.

He huffed and feigned a pout. "You're no fun, Coop. But go on… what were you dared?"

"Ugh, it's not that big of a deal. It sounded better in my head, but now that I'm telling it… Anyway, a friend dared me to kiss my best friend at the time, and I did. Then he slipped his tongue inside my mouth. We may have kissed a little longer than we should've, and I didn't hate it. His scruff against my skin was weird, but…" I shuddered for effect.

Aspen sat up and looked at me with those dark eyes looking bigger than usual—dark pits you could fall into and want to. I physically shook that errant thought out of my head, chalking it up to being drunk. "Please tell me you two got together. That would make for an epic story. Two best friends, made to kiss, only to realize they were also made for each other. So fucking hot. I'm getting a chubby just imagining it."

I snorted a laugh. "I don't need to think about your chubbies, Asp. And nothing so exciting happened. That was it. When we sobered up, we promised we would never speak of it again."

"Bummer."

"I've got one!" Mac said, raising his hand. He tossed back the remainder of his drink and set his empty glass on the table. "My first year here at UT, I had a roommate in the dorm named Jeff. We were both kind of nerds and had a hard time finding girls. Hey, I'm cool now, but back then? Nah. So, Jeff would have his older brother buy us liquor like your friend did, Coop, and we'd sneak it into the dorm and get drunk. But after a while, we'd get lonely and horny. Alcohol does that. And using your hand gets old, ya know? So, Jeff suggested doing bro-jobs one drunken night."

"What the fuck is a bro-job?" I asked.

"You know? When guy friends give each other head," Ethan's girlfriend, Sophie, offered.

"Wait, that's a thing?" Bryce asked, wide-eyed, as Cassie snorted a drunken laugh.

"Yeah, it's a thing. Hey, no offense against the ladies, but dudes just know how to do it better," Aspen said, winking at me. I rolled my eyes and pushed my shoulder against him.

"How the hell would you know, Asp? Suck a lot of cock do we?" I teased.

"No, but I've wondered about it."

Before I could retort, Eliza chimed in. "The same could be said for women going down on women. You guys couldn't find the clit if we paid you and drew you a map." She huffed and then scowled at Zayne before he could bitch back at her. "Don't even think about doing it with your friends. I'm not sharing your dick with anyone."

"Hey, how'd I get fucking involved here? I'll show you I know exactly where the clit is." He sneered at Mac, pulling Eliza onto his lap and making out with her before they stood and left the room.

I waved my hand at Mac. "Wait, wait, wait. Back up. So, you all just sucked each other off? Doesn't that mean you're gay or bisexual or something?"

Mac shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, I'm not into dudes at all. When Jeff sucked me off, I just imagined him as a woman. It's not hard when your eyes are closed, and you've been drinking. It was definitely different when I was sucking him off, but it didn't bother me either. It was just a favor for a favor."

"I guess that makes sense." Did it, though? The way he put it seemed to make sense. Then again, I'd been drinking a lot tonight. I grabbed my beer bottle and tossed back the last sip. "I was today years old when I learned about bro-jobs."

"Man, you should try it at least once. It was the best head I ever got." He scratched his head underneath his fedora. "We did it a lot after that, even when we weren't drunk, but once we finally found girlfriends, it all stopped." Then he chuckled and grabbed another shot sitting on the table and tossed it back.

"Ugh, I can't remember the last time I had sex," I groused, leaning my head back against the couch cushions. "No, I remember, but it's been a while."

Aspen sat up, looking more alert. "Wait, how is that even possible? You're like, so hot… I'm zipping it up." He mimed, zipping up his lips. "Sorry, it just seems like you wouldn't have trouble getting girls."

"Well, my ex-girlfriend cheated on me at the end of last semester, and I don't know, whenever I have the opportunity, I'm just all blah about it."

"What a horrible person," Ethan muttered. "Why can't people be honest?"

Sophie pointed at me and nodded. "That makes sense. My last boyfriend cheated on me. It took me forever to trust again or even want to be with a guy… until Ethan, here."

"Yeah? I guess there's hope for me yet."

"Pffft… Aman… Adama… whatever… the cheater was my friend and she… I couldn't be friends with her after that," Cassie slurred.

I patted her leg and smiled. "I'm glad you're on my side, Cass."

It was close to one in the morning, and everyone was on the verge of passing out, myself included. After Aspen got Lisa comfortable, we both searched around the apartment for extra pillows and blankets and tossed them into the living room for everyone to use.

I really needed to crash. My head was more than spinning, and I wobbled more than walked. Those fucking shots hit hard. After chugging two full glasses of water and taking a piss, I headed to my room and stripped down to my underwear before falling face-first into bed. My sheets were cool, washing over my heated skin, but my head spun even more, causing all that liquor in my stomach to churn and burn. I dropped an arm over the side of the bed, which was a cool trick to keep things from spinning too much. I had no idea how it worked, but it did.

God, I was going to hurt in the morning.

I sighed into the cool pillow before passing out, but then something suddenly jostled around in my bed, thrashing me awake. I turned my head to find Aspen next to me, lying on his side, facing me with his eyes already closed and tucked under my comforter.

"Dude," I said, but I wasn't sure a real word escaped my mouth.

"I need a bed, Coop. Zayne and Eliza are still going at it in there."

"You let them fuck in your bed?"

"Please… I'm so fucking tired."

"Fine, but you better not be naked," I mumbled before passing out again.