Red Zone: Boys of Fall by Mari Carr

Then, before he could think of a reason not to, he kicked off his shoes and pants. Fuck it. He’d made his bed when he’d crawled into Sadie’s with Oakley. There was no going back now.
    They followed Sadie to her bedroom. Oakley laughed loudly when he saw her bed, and Joel grinned. She’d laid a red-and-white-checkered tablecloth on top of her comforter and lit candles on the nightstands. In the middle of her makeshift picnic was a bucket of KFC, a huge bowl of McDonald’s French fries and a bottle of Don Julio.
    “I forgot to mention,” she said, crawling onto the bed. “I can’t cook.”
    “Tequila?” Joel asked, reaching for the full bottle of Blanco.
    Sadie shrugged. “Tequila makes everything taste good.”
    Oakley took the bottle from him, uncorked it and took a shot. “You got that right.” He passed the bottle to Sadie, who followed his lead. Then she sent the tequila to Joel. He took a swig, enjoying the heat of the alcohol as it slid down his throat.
    He and Oakley joined her on the bed, the three of them talking and laughing as if it was the most normal thing on earth to be eating fast food while naked in her bed.
    Once they’d plowed through the bucket and put a big dent in the massive pile of fries she’d bought, Oakley “cleared the table”, moving everything—except the tequila—to the floor.
    “What should we do next?” Oakley asked, though the way he ran his fingers over Sadie’s breasts made it obvious what he wanted to do.
    Sadie, however, had other plans. She pushed his hand away. “Nope. No wham-bam tonight.”
    Joel scowled. “I’m fairly certain we’ve never done wham-bam.”
    She laughed. “You know what I mean. We get busy and then we get off. We’re going to try that anticipation thing Oakley and I discussed.”
    Oakley scowled. “Thought we agreed we sucked at that.”
    “Which is why we need practice. I thought we could play a game.”
    Joel looked at their naked bodies and joked, “I guess strip poker is out.”
    Sadie giggled, then took another quick shot of tequila. “I want to play Truth or Dare.”
    Oakley’s brows lifted in approval. “I like the sound of that. Can we make it Kinky Truth or Dare?”
    Sadie handed Oakley the bottle as she rolled her eyes. “You have a one-track mind.”
    Oakley took another drink. “Fine. Your game, you start.”
    “Okay.” Sadie leaned against the headboard and looked at Oakley. It occurred to Joel she’d had time to consider her questions…and her dares. She was far too ready to play. “Oak. Truth or dare?”
    “Truth.”
    “Tell me about your first time.”
    Oakley stretched out next to her, though the opposite direction, his head positioned at her feet. “Okay. With a guy or a girl?”
    Sadie was undaunted. “Your first first. Was it with a girl?”
    Oakley shook his head. “Nope. It was a guy. Friend of mine from school. We were sixteen. His name was Jacob.” Oakley’s gaze remained on Sadie’s face and Joel got a sense Oakley didn’t want to say more.
    Joel was surprised to realize he didn’t know this story. He and Oakley had shared so much of their lives with each other, it didn’t occur to him until now that the one thing they didn’t discuss was Oakley’s affairs with guys. Had Oakley purposely avoided telling Joel about them? Had Joel somehow given him the impression those stories would make him uncomfortable?
    “Details,” Sadie prompted.
    “Jake was an oops. A late-in-life baby for his folks. Which meant he had a lot of older siblings who were adults. Jake was housesitting for his older brother one weekend. His parents had said it was cool for him to stay at his brother’s place to take care of the dog and stuff. I got invited to sleep over too. His brother left us a twelve-pack of beer in the fridge that Jake’s parents didn’t know about. Neither one of us really partied so it didn’t take much for us to get tipsy. Next thing I know, Jake’s kissing me.”
    Sadie tilted her head.