“You two should just have sex and get it over with,” Paul said watching Drue bear-hug Will as Will playfully fought to escape.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Drue taunted Paul. “You’d like to see me pound one off in Will’s hole. You lie in bed at night thinking about it, don’t you?”

With Will bent forward trying to free himself, Drue simulated fucking his best friend. “Ahh! Yeah! Will, you’re so tight. Will, I’m coming! Ah. Ahh. Ahh!”

“Gross!” Will chided.

“You’re sick,” Paul retorted turning back towards the campfire.

“Let me go,” Will demanded. “Let me go!”

Drue complied. Free, Will left Drue and sat next to R.J. in front of the fire. Drue laughed looking at his friends. They all had an uncomfortable look on their face. Drue was satisfied.

Drue joined Will next to the fire. He turned to his friends changing the topic. “If there was a girl from school who could be here right now, who would you want it to be?” 

Still looking into the fire, Paul smiled. “Tiffany, because you know she’d put out.”

“Nah, Tiffany wouldn’t put out. Now, Emily, she’d put out,” R.J. said.

“You’re crazy,” Paul countered. “Tiffany and Brett did it. You know she’ll do it again. Emily probably hasn’t even seen a dude naked.”

“You both have it wrong,” Drue interjected. “Tanya.”

“Tanya?” Paul protested turning to Drue. “Who would wanna fuck Tanya?”

“You serious?” Drue asked surprised. “Will, back me up on this. Tanya is the most fuckable girl in school.”

“She’s pretty fuckable,” Will conceded.

“Thank you.”

“You tow don’t know what you’re talking about,” R.J. objected.

“Those titties? That ass? Tell me that if she was standing naked in front of you right now, and she was asking you to fuck her, that you wouldn’t do it.”

“I mean, if she was standing here naked asking me to, of course I would,” Paul conceded. “But I’m not gonna work for it.”

“I’d work it. I’d work for it all day. I’d work overtime for it,” Drue joked. “Then when I had it, I would work it all night.”

Drue thrust his hips simulating sex. Moaning louder and louder he pretended to orgasm. Sitting back down, he tossed his imaginary cum towards his friends.

“Ewwww!” Paul protested. “You’re disgusting. I’m going to bed.”

“Me too,” R.J. said following his friend to their tent.

Paul turned back to Drue and Will. “Set your alarms for five. We need to get on the river early if we’re gonna make it to the second campsite by three.”

“Whatever,” Drue teased.

“I’m serious. We need to be on the river by 5:30.”

“Okay, dic,” Drue replied calling his friend a dictator.

“Whatever,” Paul spat before joining R.J. in their tent.

Will got up.

“Where you goin’?”

“To bed. You comin’?”

“I guess,” Drue replied reluctantly.

He didn’t feel like going to bed. He had been having fun grossing out his buddies. He could have kept doing it all night.

But sitting alone in the middle of the woods wouldn’t be any fun at all. He knew that if he went to bed, he might still have one other guy he could mess with. That guy was his favorite, Will.

Double checking the fire, Drue followed Will into the tent. The night was warm enough to sleep on top of the sleeping bag. That was what the boys did. Will lay facing away from Drue, and Drue, not liking being ignored, curled up behind Will like a spoon.

When he wrapped his arms around Will, Will didn’t give him his desired response. Upping the ante, he rubbed his nose and lips against Will’s neck. Will chuckled and pulled his neck away.

“Stop.”

Satisfied that he had gotten a reaction, he rested his head on Will’s pillow. Drue wasn’t sure why he didn’t also let Will go. Drue had begun cuddling with his best friend when they were both fourteen years old. He started doing it to torture him. Will was always the most embarrassed by Drue’s attempts to touch him, so he had been the subject of most of Drue’s torment.

But as the years went on, Will resisted less and less. Drue assumed that he had broken his spirit. Will now gave into Drue’s gestures with much less resistance. In fact, the only time Will ever fought anymore was when Paul or R.J. were watching.

R.J. had once defended Will by telling Drue that he should stop bullying Will. But Drue decided that R.J. didn’t understand their relationship. In spite of everything, Drue knew that Will took it in the spirit it was intended. After all, he would never pretend affection towards Will if Drue didn’t genuinely care for his friend.

Getting comfortable in the privacy of their tent, Drue clutched his friend. Pulling him tighter he felt something that he hadn’t felt before. Will’s hand suddenly held his. Drue initially thought that Will was trying to pull his away, but he wasn’t. Will’s hand lingered on his as if Will was holding Drue’s hand in place.

As the night progressed, Drue could feel something else unusual. He could feel Will’s heartbeat It was beginning to race. Drue considered asking his friend if everything was alright. He didn’t. Instead, he loosened his grip on Will seeing what would happen. Will’s hand tightened around Drue’s forcing him to stay.

“Drue, are you awake?” Will whispered.

Drue immediately knew something strange was about to happen. He hesitated but then replied. “Yeah.” Drue could feel Will’s heart pound.

“I have something I need to tell you,”

“What that?” Drue whispered feeling his own heart quicken.

“I…”

Will started unsure if he could finish.

“I’m in love with you.”

Drue froze. He wouldn’t have expected to hear those words in a million years. Will was his best friend and he definitely cared about him, but he didn’t have those types of feelings for Will. He didn’t have those types of feelings for any guy.

Drue tried to pull his arm from around his friend. Will clutched onto Drue not allowing him to move. Drue fought harder and was eventually free.

“I’m sorry,” Will whispered turning around to look at Drue. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Is that true?” Drue asked unsure of what to say.

“No. I’m…” Will stopped himself. He couldn’t deny it any longer. Will looked his friend in the eyes and told him the truth. “Yeah. It’s true.”

Drue couldn’t speak. He stared at Will’s face. It was illuminated by the soft campfire light and it looked like he was crying.

“Since when?”

“I don’t know. For maybe a year.”

“Are you… gay?”

“No. I mean, I don’t know.”

“But didn’t you say that you liked Sheryl?”

“Yeah.”

“Was that true?”

“I don’t know. I mean I like her.” Will paused. “Just not as much as I like you.”

The two boys stared at each other waiting for the other to speak. When Will gathered his courage and slowly moved his lips closer to Drue’s, Drue recoiled in alarm.

“I don’t like you like that.”

Will froze. “What do you mean?”