Things had been weird since that video Farid and I made together came out. I got a lot more attention on Flumblr since then, and even some people who followed my LiveDream account saw me on the video.
The thing was, people who knew me on LiveDream knew me on Flumblr, but not vice versa. I try not to leave much trace of my LiveDream on my Flumblr, as I liked to keep my Flumblr profile public. There wasn't really any shame in people publicly knowing about my LiveDream, but I didn't really want people I knew in real life to find out about it, especially my family. It would just be too weird.
Anyway, I probably racked up about twenty thousand new followers since the video came out, which was absolutely astounding to me. I knew I was good-looking, but being able to have twenty thousand new people want to follow me just for my looks? It felt good.
I was working my shift down at the grocery store again, minding my own business and just trying to, 'get in my bag' as usual. When it was finally time for my break, I clocked out, ready to go to the staff room… Until I saw Katelyn shyly walking towards me. She had her bangs clipped back, so I could actually see her face. She was actually kind of cute.
"C-Cody," she softly said, her face blushing as she averted her eyes from mine shyly, playing with the strap of her shoulder bag. "Hello…"
"Hey," I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket to see if I had any missed texts during my shift. I only had one from Nia telling me about something funny that happened to her in class.
"I was wondering…" Katelyn twiddled her thumbs. "If maybe I could talk to you? In private?" She asked in a quiet voice, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "I-If that's okay with you, of course…"
I raised a brow at her curiously. "Oh? Okay. Let's go outside," I said as she nodded eagerly. I walked through the back room to reach the exit at the back of the store. There was a bench outside against the building, where workers who usually took smoke breaks would sit and smoke. But since it was just Katelyn and I outside, we both sat on the bench together.
"What is it?" I asked her. She took a moment to look at the ground and seemed to wonder if she wanted to really say what she was going to say.
"Cody, I…" Her cheeks blushed red before tucking her hair behind her ear again before searching for something in her bag. She pulled out a small resealable plastic bag with what looked like to be cookies. She held them up to me. "...I made these for you."
I blinked and just stared at it for a moment before taking it from her, it would have been rude not to. "Thank you, what for?"
"I…" She looked up at me with wide eyes. "I really like you, Cody… I just wanted to let you know."
"Um…" I scratched the back of my neck, not really sure what to say. I tried to quickly think about what would be an appropriate response. I sighed deeply, deciding to just be straight up with her. "I'm only into dudes."
Her face fell completely, as if I had told her someone died. "Oh…"
"And even if I wasn't, you're too young for me," I said, and it was almost like rubbing salt into her wounds. It kind of made me pity her. "I'm sorry, Katelyn."
She only slowly nodded before twiddling with her thumbs nervously again.
"But you know…" I started, and she looked up at me in interest. "There's someone I know who would really appreciate cookies from you."
She tilted her head in curiosity. "Who?"
I took a deep breath. I couldn't believe I was about to say it. "Wyatt. He might be kind of on the weird side, but you should give him a chance. He's a good kid," I said with a nod. "I know he'd be grateful."
"Wyatt, huh?" Katelyn took a moment to think before smiling. "Thank you, Cody… For being honest with me."
"Do you want these back?" I asked her, gesturing towards the bag of cookies, but she shook her head. "No, no… I made those for you. Please eat them," she said with a nod before I nodded back at her.
Katelyn and I went back inside, and were greeted by a cheerful-looking Wyatt. "Hey, you two! On break?"
"Yeah, but I'm about to get back," I said before looking at Katelyn and nodding, leaving her with Wyatt. "See you two later," I said before leaving the room.
I peeked through the back room door's window to see Wyatt talking to Katelyn, and she seemed to giggle at something he said to her. I smiled. They'd be good together, I thought to myself before going back to work.
---
A few days later, I collected my laundry into my hamper in my room before bringing it down to the laundry room in the basement. I sorted the clothes by light and dark colours as I usually did, picking up my beige slacks that I wore at Nathan's party. I checked the pockets before putting it into the lights pile, finding a card in one of the back pockets.
I looked at the card, seeing it was Eric's business card at his accounting company. I raised a brow, thinking about some of the memories I had with Eric. When we were younger, even though Eric would tease me along with Nathan and his friends, he was the only one out of all of them who ever took me seriously.
I remembered that he was the one who would tell Nathan and the others when the teasing went too far, or being their voice of reason whenever the four of them got into shenanigans. There were also times before when it was my birthday, and he'd bring me a small present, like even just a candy bar or something. He was a nice guy who just got mixed in with idiots.
I placed the card aside before doing my laundry, mentally noting to keep it for later.
---
My thumb was slightly shaking as I typed out Eric's number from the card on my phone. I took a moment deciding if I should really do it before actually hitting the call button. It was his business number, after all…
I shook my head and decided to call anyway. I hit the call button and brought my phone to my ear, taking a deep breath as I heard the line ring.
After two rings, it seemed someone picked up. "This is Eric Chung from The Willowside Company, how may I help you today?"
I scratched my head. "Uh, hey Eric. It's Cody, you know, Nathan's brother."
"Oh! Hey, Cody!" He said, his voice seemingly full of excitement. "It's nice to hear from you. What's going on? You need any financial help?"
"Er… No, not really," I said, scratching my head. "I actually wanted to know if you'd want to have lunch together sometime."
"Really?" Eric asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "Like… You, me, Nathan, and the other guys?"
"Um, I was thinking of just the two of us."
I heard the sound of some frantic shuffling or something on the other line before Eric answered again. "W-wow, I mean, I'd love to," he said. "I'm a bit surprised, but I'd like that, Cody. How about I text you later from my personal phone and we can…" He clicked his tongue. "Arrange something?"
"Sounds good to me."
Eric chuckled. "Okay, good. Should I text this number?"
"Yeah, this is my phone," I said.
"Alright. Then I'll text you later, okay? Thanks again, Cody. It means a lot that you reached out."
"Mm-hmm. Bye," I said before I hung up. I sighed, feeling my heart racing in my chest. I didn't know why, but somehow just having that phone call made me feel a bit nervous. Definitely not near the intensity of the nervousness I'd feel around Daniel or Julian, but still a bit nervous in a good way.
Are we arranging a date? I asked myself, taking a moment to think before shaking my head. No way… A date with Eric? I don't want to consider it to be a date, dating Nathan's friends would be so complicated and just downright weird.
But still, I had to admit that I was looking forward to whatever Eric was going to plan.
---
A few days later when I was mindlessly scrolling through Flumblr on my laptop, I finally got a text message from an unknown number.
"Hey Cody :) This is Eric! Would you still be interested in hanging out together sometime? I know this really great Vietnamese take-out place. I could get some food for us and maybe we could check out Harrington Park?"
Then another text followed that one. "Only if you still want to, though. Because if you changed your mind, I don't mind either. I get it! You probably have a lot going on in your life. :)"
And then one more text followed that one. "Seriously, don't feel like you're obliged to hang out with me or anything like that, because as I said, I won't be mad if you decide to cancel, promise. But I'm not saying that I want you to or anything! :D"
I found myself wanting to chuckle at the messages, but it would have been kind of rude to. I knew Eric was a bit of an awkward but still nice guy, and he was probably trying to figure out the nicest way possible to communicate with his friend's little brother.
I decided to try and be nice about it. "I'd love to do that with you," I texted. "I'll send a picture of my work schedule and we can plan a day together," I finished typing before sending the message. I went into my phone's photo gallery before finding a screenshot of my work schedule for this month before sending it to Eric. I waited for his response and when he responded, we planned a day for us to spend time together when we were both off of work.
Somehow, I felt excited about my day with Eric. But, why? We were just gonna be two dudes hanging out, right?
...Right?
---
The day had finally come. I drove out to Harrington Park, which was a fairly large public park in the city that had a lot of space for picnics and outdoor activities and whatnot. When I pulled up to the parking lot, it seemed that there weren't many people at the park on that day. Not that I minded at all, I preferred it when it wasn't crowded.
I sat in my car, listening to some jazzy tunes while I waited for a text from Eric when he'd arrive. I didn't know why I felt a bit nervous, having a picnic seemed like something so intimate, like something that couples who have been dating for a while would do. But this wasn't a date…
After about ten to fifteen minutes, my phone chimed. I checked it to see a new message from Eric. "Just parked at Harrington Park. Are you here already? I'm hanging out outside my car."
I locked my phone before putting it in my pocket, heading out of my car before I locked it. I looked around the parking lot, and sure enough, I saw Eric leaning against his car, which was a modest silver sedan. He looked up and smiled when he saw me. "Hey, Cody!"
He looks good, I thought to myself. I walked over to him and nodded. "Hey."
He opened the back door of his car, reaching for something before pulling out two bags which I assumed were take-out.
"Here, could you take one?" He asked me and I nodded, taking a bag from him as he closed his car door and locked his car with his free hand. "Alright, let's find somewhere to sit," he said as he began walking down the park trail and I followed behind him.
After a few minutes of walking, we found a picnic table to sit at. It was behind a wall of trees that provided a good amount of shade, while it faced an old empty baseball diamond. It was a nice little spot.
We put down the bags on the table before sitting across from each other at the picnic table. "What did you get?"
Eric smiled as he began to untie the bags, pulling out different food packages and placing them on the table. "Vietnamese take-out. I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I got my recommendations. I'm sure you're gonna love it," he said cheerily.
After he arranged all the food on the table, he explained to me what each container had inside. When he opened the packages, the food was unfamiliar to me, but smelled and looked delicious nonetheless. The food seemed to still be hot, and I couldn't wait to dig in.
Eric handed me a paper plate and plastic utensils before getting some for himself. I tried all of the different foods, and they were really delicious! I never tried anything like that before, as it was my first time trying Vietnamese food. There was something I especially loved, some kind of stuffed pancake.
"What is this? I love it," I said to Eric as I ate it. I could taste the richness of the pork and the tang of the shrimp.
He wiped his mouth with a napkin before smiling at me. "Banh xeo," he said with a nod. "It's good, huh? I'm glad you like it. That's my little sister's favourite, too. She always orders it whenever we go to this restaurant."
"I didn't know you had a sister," I said curiously. The two of us continued to eat. There was a question that had been lingering in my mind that I'd been meaning to ask him, but I thought it would be too awkward to ask.
I might as well just ask him. He's a nice guy, I'm sure he wouldn't make fun of me like the rest of Nathan's other friends.
"Um… Kind of a weird question, but why did you take me here for a picnic?" I asked him. "It just seems a bit… intimate."
Eric's cheeks flushed pink as he nervously laughed. "Oh, s-sorry, Cody… I noticed that since you've always been the quiet type, you would probably want to hang out somewhere that isn't too crowded or loud," he said with a nod. "I usually prefer going to places like this, but I just never really had anyone else who would appreciate it like I do. So… When you asked me if I wanted to hang out, I just assumed that you would probably want to do something like this… But I'm really sorry if I was wrong," he said, beginning to become flustered.
I shook my head and smiled. "No, you're right, I do prefer going somewhere like this where it's quiet but still out in the open. Thanks for agreeing to hang out with me and bringing me here," I said, before slurping on some sort of thin noodles. Delicious.
He smiled. "I-I'm glad," he said in relief. "I'm happy you're enjoying the food, too."
I felt happy. I didn't know if there was something there between Eric and I, but all I knew was that I was enjoying whatever it was that was between us. It was just really nice.
"If I may ask, though…" Eric cleared his throat. "Why did you ask just me to hang out with you? I don't mean this in a bad way, but we've never really talked much before, other than whenever I came over to your house to hang out with Nathan and the others."
I took a moment to ponder over how I wanted to answer this as I bit into what I assumed to be some kind of spring roll. "Out of all of Nathan's friends, you were the only one who was nice to me," I said with a stuffed mouth before swallowing my food. "I mean, of course all of you would pick on me, but you… You seemed like you actually gave a shit about me, y'know? Growing up, I'd never forget the times when you'd tell the others when the teasing would go too far or when you'd get me something small on my birthdays. I never really got to thank you for all of that, so…" I scratched my head sheepishly. "Asking you to hang out was kind of my weird way of thanking you."
Eric seemed to blush and smile at my answer. "Well, growing up in a Chinese household, my parents and grandmother raised me to always be respectful to others. They were pretty strict about it too, so I guess they really ingrained the whole 'respect' thing in me…" He took another bite of his food. "Or maybe I'm just naturally like that. Either way, I always find joy in making others happy. I always noticed that you were always sort of closed-off and introverted, so getting you a little something on your birthdays to see you smile would make me happy."
He's such a nice guy, and he's really handsome, too, I thought to myself. If he wasn't one of Nathan's best friends, I'd probably want to try going out with him… That is, if he was into guys.
We continued to eat our food as I'd ask Eric about the different dishes, and he'd enthusiastically explain them to me. I was actually having a lot more fun than I expected, and I sensed that Eric was feeling the same way, too.
---
After we finished our food, we threw out all the disposable containers before deciding to just sit on the grass and talk. I actually felt quite comfortable talking to Eric, as we both were pretty shy. I suppose something about us both being introverts made us feel comfortable with each other. He talked about how his training for his accounting job was going, and it seemed that he was really enjoying what he was doing and where he would go from there. Then he asked me how my job at the grocery store was going, and even though there wasn't much to say about it, I tried to hype it up as much as I could. I even told him about Wyatt and Katelyn.
"That's really nice of you to put them together," Eric said with a nod and a smile. "I hope they work out."
"I do too," I said. "It's always cute to see kids in love."
"I agree," he said. "Speaking of kids in love, what about you? You in love with someone?" He asked with a curious look on his face.
I sighed before looking down, picking a small clover from the grass. "Well… I was," I said solemnly. "But we broke up last year."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Eric said sympathetically. "Breakups are tough, huh? I mean, I've only been in one, but I know that they aren't easy."
I looked up at him and widened my eyes. "Only one? Really?" I asked. "But… You're such a nice and handsome guy."
Eric chuckled. "Thank you, that's really nice of you to say. But if you haven't noticed, I'm kind of awkward. I haven't done more with a girl than kiss her."
"No way."
Eric seemed to become embarrassed. "It's true."
The two of us were silent for a few moments, before I bit down on my lip and thought about asking him what came to mind. I wonder if he would want to go further… With me.
"By choice?" I asked him, and he just shrugged. "Well, I guess so. I mean, I'd like to, but… I've always just been too awkward to have any… sexual interactions, y'know?"
"Do you think you'd want to?" I asked, raising a brow. "Maybe… With me?"
He looked at me with a flushed face. "W-what are you trying to say, Cody?"
I pulled up my legs and leaned my head against my knees, looking at him with a smile. "I can do something for you if you'd like… I wouldn't mind being your first, if you want."
"Um…" Eric chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "I-Is this some kind of prank?"
I shook my head. "No, I mean it. We can do something together right here," I said as I sat up and shifted closer to him. "If you don't want to, that's fine. But it's just my way of saying 'thank you' for being so nice to me, back then and now."
"You're saying that so casually," Eric said as his brows knit and he gulped. "How can you offer it so easily?"
"Because I like having sex," I said a bit shyly. "It's fun. You're really cute and nice, Eric… So I wouldn't mind showing you how fun it can be."
Eric looked down and seemed to take a good few moments to think over it, mentally debating with himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Alright… I think I'd want to try. I don't know what to do, though."
I smiled at him. "It's okay. We can do something simple… How about if I give you a handjob?"
"S-sure," Eric said in embarrassment. "Here?"
I nodded. "No one else is around," I said before I lightly placed a hand on top of his that was in the grass.
Eric was silent for a few moments before he bit his lip, adjusting himself as I shifted myself to climb over his legs, and nothing more was said as I began to undo the front of his pants, and he helped me pull down the front of his underwear to pull out his thin cock that was had a cute pink head.
I held myself up with my knees and a hand, spitting into my other hand before reaching between his thighs, grabbing his cock, making his face flush red and his body tense up as he whimpered slightly just from me touching him. I almost wanted to laugh at how cute it was, he was more sensitive than I was!
"Just relax," I softly said before I slowly started to move my hand that was gripping him, stroking him as he would let out small moans and was breathing heavily.
I took a look around for a quick moment to make sure there really wasn't anyone around, it would have been extremely embarrassing for the both of us if someone did see us. Personally, I wouldn't mind being caught having sex in public—but I didn't think Eric would.
I gripped him harder as my hand jerked him, feeling him growing hard with my hand around him. I noticed how Eric would squirm or let out a shaky breath with each pull or drag of my hand, and he would just watch me work my hand on him while he'd grip at the grass in the ground.
"W-wow, Cody…" Eric breathily let out as I continued jerking him. "I never thought someone else jerking me off would feel so good…"
I smiled at him. "Yeah, you're really sensitive too," I said as I moved my hand faster up and down his cock. "It's honestly cute."
Eric only blushed deeper as he let me continue to work my hand on him, taking a moment to spit into my palm again before going back in to stroke him quickly. He was nice and erect at this point, it was sweet to see his body react so quickly to what I was doing. It was adorable having fun with a virgin like him. His cock felt so slick in my hand, and it glided so easily with each rub.
I flicked my wrist, giving a harder squeeze to every stroke and swiping my thumb over the pre-cum that was leaking from the head. He just kept panting and gripping at the grass, his cock twitching in my hand as I continued to jack him, watching his cute expression on his blushing face. I know he probably felt embarrassed having me do this to him in a public place, but he never told me that he wanted to stop.
I moved my hand faster on him, jerking him at a quick pace, and his breaths were becoming shorter while his moans were rising in pitch. "C-Cody, nn…" He began to desperately thrust his hips up, matching the rhythm of my hand. "I-I feel so good, I feel like I'm… I'm gonna…"
And with a final twist and flick of my wrist along with a tight squeeze, he came with a moan, spilling his load onto my hand. He looked so cute getting lost in his orgasm, having his first one from someone else touching him.
He took a few moments to steady his breath and calm himself down. I patiently waited, letting go of his cock, my hand feeling sticky with his semen. When he finally seemed to relax, he exhaled deeply, pulling out some extra napkins that came with the food earlier. He passed me one and I nodded before taking it, wiping my hand clean. "Always good to keep extra napkins handy," I awkwardly said.
Eric chuckled softly. "Yeah, I guess I picked up the habit from my parents. Always keep some extra napkins on you, you never know when you need them."
He tucked himself back into his pants and made himself decent again as I stood up and walked over to the trash can to throw out the soiled napkin. Eric and I just spent a few awkward moments just standing in front of each other shyly, neither of us quite knowing what to say.
"Um…" Eric scratched the back of his neck, blushing wildly. "That was…"
"It was nice," I said with a reassuring smile, knowing he was probably embarrassed. "I really liked seeing you like that."
"I… I've never done anything like that with anyone before…" He said, looking down. "I can't believe my first time doing anything sexual with someone was with you."
"Do you regret it?" I asked him curiously, and he took a moment to think before shaking his head. "No, as you said… It was nice."
We just took a moment to smile at each other, before he cleared his throat. "Um… I guess we should get going now," he said as I nodded. We walked back to the parking lot together before looking at each other again. "Thank you, Cody…" Eric said sincerely. "I… I had a lot of fun with you today."
"I did too," I said with a nod.
He was blushing again, and kicked at a rock on the ground. "You know, you were always really cute, Cody," he admitted, making me widen my eyes. "Kyle, Farid, and me… We always thought that. We'd never tell Nathan, though."
I began to blush as well. Even though him saying that didn't surprise me much, it still made me feel good to hear that. All those sleepovers growing up, they'd be looking at me and thinking about how cute I was…
He cleared his throat again. "A-anyways, I hope we can maybe do something like this again, sometime. I wouldn't mind hanging out again if you'd want to."
"Just hanging out?" I playfully asked as I raised a brow, and he chuckled awkwardly in embarrassment, making me laugh.
"Yeah, I'll think about it. See you around, Eric," I said to him with a nod as he nodded back. "See you, Cody."
The two of us went our separate ways to our cars. I unlocked it and sat inside, closing the door before taking a deep breath. I turned on the radio and turned up the volume, hearing a chilled-out jazzy funk song come on.
I thought about all three of Nathan's friends—Kyle, Farid, and Eric. Growing up, they would always tease me along with Nathan… But I had done something sexual with all three of them recently, and now it turns out they always thought I was cute? I never thought they did, and that they all hated me or something. I never really cared for whatever they thought of me, but somehow it feels good knowing this newfound information. They all wanted me, I was the pretty little brother of their best friend who was so cute, but so off-limits. I was their forbidden fantasy.
Kyle is a brick-headed asshole, yet something about me likes seeing a hot jock like him get off… Farid is annoying, somewhat vain and cocky, but there's something charming about him, no wonder he's a playboy… And Eric is smart, sweet, and shy, and I think he's really cute…!
I smiled to myself as I started my car. I'm thinking of planning a reunion with the boys… The kind that I hope Nathan will never find out about.