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How had this happened?
It had started with Yuri being approached by a guy he vaguely recognized. “Hey, dude! Wanna participate in a frat hazing ritual?”
Yuri barely even looked up from his phone. “Okay, one, if I’d wanted to participate I’d have rushed, and two, aren’t those illegal?”
The asshole just laughed at him. “This isn’t the movies kind, with the paddling and the excessive drinking and stuff. It’s just kinda messing with our new pledge a little, and I know the guy well enough to know he’ll be able to roll with it fine. I’m gonna send him over to ask you out to the football game tomorrow night.” Yuri rolled his eyes. He hadn’t agreed to this, even just to knowing what this twit had in mind. “He’ll be expecting you to say no. Say yes.”
Still scoffing, but a little intrigued by the layers there, Yuri had agreed. If nothing else, he got to go to a football game for free, even if it was with a frat douche. Otabek had barely reacted when Yuri said yes, or so he thought. Now, two months later, he knew Otabek better. In retrospect, Otabek had been shocked by Yuri’s agreement.
Every time Yuri showed up as Otabek’s date for a frat event, or a football game, or anything else, he could see the stares of the actual frat douches. Otabek was good at ignoring them, and Yuri kind of enjoyed their confusion. The problem was that this had long since stopped feeling fake.
When Otabek came to meet him before the frat’s Halloween party, most people would think he looked fine. Yuri wasn’t most people. The soft smile he usually had when he first saw Yuri never showed up. “What’s wrong, Otabek?”
“How long are you going to keep doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Asking you out was supposed to be a hazing prank, setting me up for rejection. I know Leo talked to you about it, because he’s a good guy and wouldn’t rope someone into something without warning. When you said yes, I figured okay, you just wanted the free date, fine. It’s been two months. How much longer are you planning on stringing me along?”
“I’m not stringing you along, dude. Yeah. I said yes to the original date because Leo asked me to. Everything since then? That’s been all me. I like you. You’re cool. Potya likes you. My grandpa likes you.” Yuri scoffed and crossed his arms. “You think if this was about hazing you for your frat I’d have introduced you to my family?!”
“I didn’t think so, but JJ said…”
“JJ is a fucking jackass,” Yuri snarled. “I know you and Leo like him, but he has no idea who I am or what I’m like. He invented some kind of persona for me and insists it’s actually me. I take it that’s why you’re doing this now? JJ talked to you today?”
“Last night, but… yeah.” Otabek had the grace to look abashed. “He said that you were planning on ending this at the Halloween party tonight. If you were, I was going to ask you to not. Hazing’s one thing, but ruining my birthday like that is just a dick move.”
“No fucking kidding. Only thing I planned on doing at the Halloween party tonight was drinking and dancing and…” Yuri paused. “Okay, I guess in a way I was planning on ending this. I was gonna ask you to be my boyfriend, make things official, clear up any doubt in your friends’ minds that this had anything at all to do with hazing anymore.”
“Glad that’s settled, then.” Otabek’s soft smile was in place now, to Yuri’s relief. “Any chance JJ might have heard about that, twisted through the rumor mill? Because he really is a good guy.”
“Maybe, I guess. Leo asked what was going on and I told him.”