back nextDirt had work with Brian for the first time since they broke up. Christie had been very nice when they requested to not have shifts together during that time, but now that things were finally back to normal, it was nice to get to hang out during work, again. Though, Dirt kept getting distracted, staring at Brian doing his little tasks...
"Hey!" Brian had caught him. "Stop starin' at me, dude, you're supposed to be stockin' the cigarettes!" he scolded playfully.
Dirt blushed up to his ears and giggled gayly. "Sorryyyy brooo I just like youuuuu..." he simpered, before turning back around to work like he was supposed to.
Then, three teen boys walked in, only one of them was wearing their mask right. One of them had his pulled down below his chin, and the other one didn't have his nose covered. They were all laughing about something as they came in, hitting each other playfully. The one with his mask completely pulled down took a huge hit off a juul, blowing a big, obvious vape cloud.
"Hey. Do that outside," Dirt said firmly. The boys all laughed.
"What are you gonna do?" the vaper asked mockingly. Dirt just rolled his eyes as the boys perused the store. They were gathered around the liquor section, talking amongst themselves about which beer they should get, despite obviously being underage.
They came up to the counter with a six pack, and a couple big bags of chips. "Can I see some ID?" Dirt asked smugly. The nose-out guy stepped forward and opened up his wallet, pulling out an ID card and handing it to Dirt.
"Tch. This is fake," Dirt said, immediately being able to tell. It was a shitty fake, too.
"What?? No, it's not!" argued the teen. Dirt stuck his thumb-nail into the side of the card, and the layers easily separated enough for him to completely pull them apart, and dropped both layers onto the counter, looking at the boys like :|. He took the six pack and put it under the counter before scanning the chips.
"Nice going, Tanner," said the properly masked boy, nudging his friend hard. Tanner embarrassedly took the pieces of his fake ID and shoved them into his pocket.
"$7.35," Dirt said, and masked teen stepped forward to pay for it. "Have a good night," Dirt said as he handed him the receipt.
"Fuck you," Tanner spat as they all left. Both of his friends punched him, saying, "Dude shut up," and "Shut the fuck up, Tanner." Once they were gone, Dirt took the beer they tried to buy and put it back on the shelf.
"Hey," Brian said, once Dirt returned to behind the counter, "You wanna go on a date when we get off?" he asked sweetly. Dirt smiled, all flustered.
"Of course!" he excitedly responded. "What're you thinkin'?"
"Breakfast at that fancy cafe again? The... first time was kinda a date in my mind but.."
"Aww!! Seriously? Dude, I had no idea! I mean, I kinda hoped, but! I figured you were just being friendly!" Dirt chuckled. Brian giggled, and stole the hat off of Dirt's head to ruffle his hair.
"Agh! Hey!!" Dirt yelled, reaching for his hat back. Brian pulled it away from their reach, but since they were pretty much the same height, Dirt still grabbed it pretty easily. Though he ended up tripping over his feet and stumbling into Brian.
"Woah!" Brian yelped as he caught them, and kissed them on the forehead before giving their hat back. "You dork," he affectionately teased. Dirt rolled his eyes and went back to the counter. The smile on his face wouldn't go away, and it felt like the butterflies in his chest had just done a line of coke or something. Didn't Brian know that he'd just made it a million times harder to continue working? Really, how was Dirt supposed to be normal under these conditions?
For the last couple hours of their shift, Brian had to keep reminding Dirt of what he was supposed to be doing, as he'd often just stand still and stare into the distance with a dopey grin on his face, thinking gay thoughts. Brian's playful teasing of Dirt did the opposite of helping him focus on work.
A wave of relief washed over Dirt as the sun finally started to rise. Their shift was almost over! He was pretty exhausted from his tasks and all, but every time he looked at his boyfriend, it was like he'd just taken a sip of 5 hour energy. Or something that actually works for him. 5 hour energy never worked for Dirt. Looking at Brian and thinking about the fact that they were going on a date soon DID work, though. MAN that's gay!
The warmth of Brian's arms wrapped around Dirt's torso as they rode on his bike to the cafe was especially comforting in the biting wind of the cold February morning. Dirt wished that he and Brian never had to stop touching. That they could always just be attached to each other in some way.
When they held hands standing in line at the cafe, Dirt had to suppress the giggles that bubbled in his chest. Everything just felt so perfect, like this is how it was meant to be. Dirt squeezed Brian's hand and bit his lip, bouncing on his toes. Brian looked over to him with a soft smile and nudged him. "What?" he said, "What is that?"
Dirt let out a chuckle that sounded like when you're trying to get the last bit of shampoo out of the bottle, and you're shaking and slamming that shit against your hand so it pools at the opening, and when you squeeze, it all sort of just splatters out in one big, messy, lump, instead of the regular smooth pour of a full bottle of shampoo. "I just am gay," they explained, leaning against Brian.
Brian literally went "Teehee," before kissing Dirt's temple, but it was like, a low "teehee," y'know?
After ordering, the two of them sat down at a little table to wait for their shit. Dirt reached across the table and Brian raised an eyebrow at him before grabbing their hands. "Man, I'm so tired..." said Brian, as he caressed Dirt's knuckles with his thumbs. "You seem so full of energy."
"Oh, no, I'm exhausted! I just like being with you!"
"Pffpt," Brian keysmashed out loud, "Oh my god, bro..." He looked down to hide his embarrassed smile. Oh my god he's so cute when he's embarrassed omg I can't believe *I* can make *him* get all embarrassed like that...
"Do you have any plans after this?" Dirt asked.
"Uhhh. Sleep," Brian replied.
"Oh yeah. Yeah, true.."
"Why, you wanna do somethin'?"
"I was just gonna invite you over! Sarah's working on a project downtown, so we wouldn't be bothering her.. Not that we'd bother her anyways, um......." Dirt awkwardly trailed off. Brian smiled.
"I wouldn't mind having a nice lil nap with you like last time," he said, squeezing Dirt's hands. Dirt giggled in just the gayest way imaginable. Like hehehHEHEHEHoeohehe... His heart was aflutter.
After finishing their meal and coffee, the two saddled up on Dirt's bike once again and rode back to the house.
"HI BRIAN!" Salem exclaimed, clinging onto Brian as soon as they walked through the door. "Aaahh you smell so nice... As always..." he purred, nuzzling his face into Brian's chest.
"Uuuhhhh thanks, buddy..." Brian awkwardly replied, hesitantly patting Salem's head.
"C'mon man," Dirt scolded with a click of his tongue, "You're making him uncomfortable!" They gently ushered their boyfriends apart, and Salem did a sad little whine.
"Um so what are you doing here?" Salem asked, a bit flirtatiously. Or maybe that's just kind of how he always talks, it was hard to tell if he was trying to be seductive or not. But most likely, he was.
"Just chillin'," Brian answered.
"We're just gonna nap together," Dirt clarified, as both he and Brian removed their shoes and left them by the front door.
"Oooohhoohooo I see... You're gonna 'nap' together heheheh... I got it...." Salem smirked, doing airquotes around the word 'nap'. Brian and Dirt both rolled their eyes, amused.
"We really just gonna sleep, though," Brian said.
"Ugh, really?" Salem sighed. "Boring.. Well in the case, can I come?" He asked, grabbing onto Dirt's arm as they and Brian headed towards their bedroom. Dirt looked at Brian like ?, to which Brian shrugged, as if to say, 'Yeah whatever, man.' So Salem followed them in, and closed the door behind him.
Dirt tossed his hat onto his desk and stretched his arms over his head. Salem took this as an opportunity, and latched onto Dirt's torso from behind, burying his face in their middle back. A thorn of anxiety pricked at Dirt's chest. Is this weird? Is this okay? Is Brian uncomfortable? Oh god he's probably uncomfortable... This was a terrible idea I should just try to keep them apart from now on... He anxiously looked over to Brian, whose expression and body language he could not read at the moment.
"Um.. haha...," Dirt awkwardly patted Salem's arms, his face red with embarrassment. He was probably overreacting... Hhghdhhgghhg :( He was definitely overreacting. Salem pretty much always greeted Dirt with a hug like that when they got home from work. He pried Salem's arms off of him with a nervous chuckle.
Normally, Dirt would like, change into some sweatpants before crawling into bed, but Brian had never seen him, uh, undress before, so he just stayed in his jeans, for fear of making things awkward.
"You gonna wear jeans in bed?" Brian questioned, as he unbuttoned his own jeans. Salem, cat form, jumped onto Dirt's lap and stared at Brian. Dirt scoffed and covered Salem's little cat eyes, but he easily squirmed away from their hands, and eagerly looked back at Brian, who didn't even acknowledge him. He just! Pulled his pants down without a care in the world! "That's nasty. I hate the feelin' of wakin' up in JEANS," said Brian.
Dirt chuckled. "I-haha-Uh.. I just uh, didn't wanna make you uncomfortable!" their voice cracked.
Brian looked down and his pantsless legs, then skeptically up at Dirt. Salem hopped off of Dirt's lap and curled up in a ball next to him. Dirt chuckled nervously again before quickly changing into the pair of sweatpants that had been lazily tossed onto his bed when he'd changed for work earlier. The same fate befell his work pants just after he removed them now. He got back into bed where Brian and cat Salem had already gotten comfortable; Salem was all curled up at Brian's hip.
Once they were settled, Brian reached out for Dirt, putting his hand on their shoulder. There was a significant gap between them where Salem was ball mode. "Um.. like... Could you move, please, Salem?" Dirt asked, trying to be polite but he was extremely uncomfortable and anxious about how to act in his current situation. Like, this is kind of fucking weird, right? Salem did a little grumble, but did as Dirt asked and moved to the other side of them.
List of things Dirt had never premeditated, the realization of which was suddenly dawning upon him (All having previously seemed too impossible to even consider. Nary a passing thought of such happenstances had even once danced across his peripherals):
- that he might have more than one partner
- that he might have a literal actual catboy as one of those partners
- that he'd have not one, but two boys in his bed
- that both of said boys would be, like, attracted to him, and love him, even
Yeah whatever that stuff is all cool and is definitely making go crazy right now, but how about number 5??? Number 5? What's number 5? Number 5: That one of said boys, the one I've known for longer, wasn't comfortable with being in a polyam relationship like, a couple of days ago, and is now being faced head-on with the fact that he is sharing his boyfriend with someone else, and is probably mega uncomfortable about it!
Number 5 could've been a non-issue, though. Since Dirt refused to communicate with his partners, he'd never know if Brian was ACTUALLY uncomfortable with the situation, or if they were just putting words in his mouth and thoughts in his brain. There, google docs I used the word brain instead of brian for once are you happy? Can you stop trying to correct me every single time I write this dude's name now?? What the *fuck* are you talking about? Don't worry about it, bro. Anyways, maybe if Dirt wanted to stop being a ticking time bomb of anxiety getting closer and closer to exploding with every passing second, he'd open up his damn mouth and ask how his beloved partners were doing.
Dirt cleared his throat with all the confidence of a highschool freshman introducing themselves to the class. "Um..," he spoke softly, "Is this, like, weird to you?" he finally asked, looking to Brian.
"Is what weird?"
"Uh.... Like, that Salem is in here?" Salem meowed.
"Oh, uh... I dunno," Brian shrugged, "Why, is it weird to you? Did you wanna be alone?"
"Well. Um. No, I mean... I just thought... I dunno, like.." Dirt sighed, and desperately tried to gather his thoughts and put them into words in a way that would make sense; an extremely challenging task. "Like, a few days ago you were sayin' that you didn't wanna like.. share me, or whatever, so I thought that uh... You might not be comfortable... LITERALLY sharing me. Like your time with me. Is being literally shared right now. With him."
Brian was quiet for a moment, as he looked to be considering what Dirt had said. "Uhhhh...... Yea.. I dunno!" he shrugged again. "I'm fine. I mean to be fair, what you said kinda makes sense. But I'm all good, man."
"Even if I'm like this?" Salem asked, referring to the fact that he just transformed back into boy mode.
"Yeah I dunno. I guess so. To be honest with y'all, I think I was worryin' about stuff before that don't actually matter. Like, just bein' raised to believe that everyone's only supposed to have like one partner at a time and that if you loved someone else it meant you don't love the other one? Like I don't think that's true at all. I never really BELIEVED that, like, I been friends with polyam folks and I know they all had healthy relationships n' were happy n' shit. I guess I just never thought I'd be involved n' I saw myself so disconnected from all'a that. But now that I'm like, in here, It feels normal," Brian monologued as Dirt and Salem both listened in awe, like he was a performer giving a very meaningful and poignant speech to his little audience of two.
Dirt nodded sagely. "I totally get that, bro. I never considered polyamory for myself before, either! I mean, I never really thought I'd be able to find even ONE person for me," they joked.
Brian laughed a little and shook his head, then made eye contact with Salem and rolled his eyes, making Salem giggle. Dirt rolled onto his back so he could better see both of them at once. "What??" Dirt whined.
Instead of responding, Brian gently took Dirt's chin and tilted their head up at him for a kiss. "Sleep well." Oh wow.....
"I want a kiss!!!" Salem whined, hitting Dirt on the shoulder.
"Heh, of course, baby," Dirt turned to Salem and gave him a sweet little peck on the lips.
"Hehehe... Indirect kiss," Salem whispered.
"You say somethin'?" Brian asked Salem, genuinely not having heard his little remark.
"No! :3" he answered, and snuggled up to Dirt, shutting his eyes. Sleep crept comfortably in for the trio, who all fell asleep at once, thanks to Salem's sleep powers.