Suite Mates (bxb)

Chapter 17

James' POV

Ryan had taken a seat on Noah's bed and was holding his hand, although Noah did not look like he wanted to.

"So, like I said, I've always had a crush on Noah," Ryan explained.

I raised my hand. "Um, haven't you always been in love with Derek?"

Ryan snorted. "With that dork? Hell no! He's way too clunky for me."

I had no idea what that meant, but I knew that I was actually angry at stupid little pipsqueak.

"No, I haven't always been in love with Derek," Ryan explained. "But I needed to catch Noah's attention somehow, so I staged this whole thing where I'd be crying from Derek's rejection and Noah would come comfort me."

Something dawned on me. "Except Noah didn't. I did."

"Poorly, I might add," Ryan snorted. "But I figured I needed to get you out of the way somehow, because it seemed likely that Noah had a bit more of a crush on you that he ever would have on me."

Noah actually blushed, and I had a million more questions.

"So I needed to make sure that you wouldn't steal him from me," Ryan explained. "So I set you up to fall in love with Derek."

Wait. What?

"Hold up!" I burst out. "No you did not! You asked me to be friends with him!"

"Yeah, because you weren't just going to cooperate if I'd tried to pimp him off to you after pretending like I was madly in love. So instead, I put you in the position of spy. You were supposed to start really emotional conversations with him to get information for me." Ryan actually rolled his eyes. "But obviously, by having those vulnerable conversations, you were going to catch feels. Which was good."

So he'd played me. This whole time, I had been worried about his feelings. And I'd even thought about how stupid Ryan was for letting me dick down Derek. All this time, Ryan hadn't even cared!

Oh, I was so angry.

"Then why have sex with him?!" Noah snapped. "I heard you two!"

"Nah, we were faking," Ryan chirped. I actually felt relief that Derek hadn't just been saying that. "I wanted you to be jealous."

"So Derek helped you with this plan?" I asked, feeling nauseous.

Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Derek's too...stupid isn't the right word. But I can think in manipulative ways. He can't."

"Then what the fuck?!" Noah growled.

"Oh, I just told Derek that I wanted to make you angry. I told Derek that I wanted him to be friends with James, but I know he definitely took it the wrong way. He totally thought I meant they could date," Ryan shrugged. "Which is fine. I don't care if they do or not."

This whole time I'd been suppressing my own feelings so I didn't hurt Ryan's. Meanwhile, Ryan was going around fucking with everyone.

I pointed a shaky finger at him. "You're fucked in the head."

His grin died on his lips. "How?"

"How?! How?! Dude, you fucking manipulated everyone around you just to get what you wanted! You played with my feelings! You were literally just sobbing about me kissing Derek when you actually couldn't give less of a shit!"

Ryan's face was so punchable. "Oh, I guess I didn't think of it that way. I just wanted Noah."

He was insane.

Shockingly enough, Noah just facepalmed. "What did I say, James? Pipsqueak is bad news. I always knew that you were a little less ditzy and a little more manipulative that you let on."

Why was he acting so calm?

Noah settled a glare at Ryan. "You could have just asked me out, you know."

Ryan blinked owlishly. "But you would've said no."

Noah thought about it. Finally, he nodded. "That's true. But still. There must have been a better way than to evilly use everyone around you as puzzle pieces to your master plan."

Ryan hmmed, then shook his head. "No, I don't really think so."

We were all kind of quiet for a minute, taking everything in.

I'd learned four major things. One: Noah was gay. Two: Noah had a bad taste in guys. Three: Ryan was absolutely mind-boggling insane. Four: I could date Derek.

"Hey guys, can I leave you two alone?" I asked. "Noah, you can decide whether or not you want to hitch yourself to blatant insanity and alarming sociopathic tendencies. Ryan, you can...well, honestly, I don't even know what you can do."

I dead sprinted to my car. I broke a lot of laws to get to Derek's place as fast as possible. I waved hi to his mom and ran up to his room.

I walked in on him jerking off.

He looked insanely hot, all naked with strong muscles bathed in natural lighting, thick eyelashes framing beautiful blue eyes, and a smile that made my knees weak. "Well, look at how the turn tables."

I ignored the erect cock he had trapped in his hand. "Derek, we need to talk."

"Can we talk after?"

"Nope, drop your penis. This is important."

He made a whiney noise and let go of his dick. He sat up and blinked at me, all unruly hair and glazed-over eyes. "I hope this is good. My fantasy was getting to the part where you gave me a strip tease."

"Derek. I have to tell you a story."

I bulldozed through Ryan's psychotic story, explaining every stupid detail that made absolutely no reasonable sense but still somehow managed to trick us all.

I finished with a dramatic hand motion. "Isn't that absolutely insane?!"

Derek just nodded and made a thoughtful noise. "That sounds like Ryan. Always trying to use his theatre skills in real life. You gotta watch out for him. Why'd you fall for all that bullshit?"

"...You didn't?"

"James, I've really just been chillin' here trying to get you to date me."

"Huh."

I'd wondered for a while how Derek and Ryan even could be friends, but now it made sense. I watched as Derek gave me a half-amused look and his cock slowly lost his hardness. He wasn't at all shocked by this story, which meant that he wasn't actually being an asshole when he'd completely disregarded Ryan's feelings. He just knew his friend pretty well.

"Does this mean that we get to go on a second date?" Derek asked with a delighted grin. "Because that sounds like amazing news to me."

"...Yeah, I guess it does," I said with a sightly relieved feeling. A was finally allowed to stop holding back. "I guess we really have to thank Ryan for setting us up, huh?"

Derek pulled me in for a kiss and gave me a boyish grin. "I'll send him a thank you card."