Joey’s Trick

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel in agitation. He’d rather have bamboo shoots shoved underneath his fingernails than go home. The idea of facing Patrick ‘Trick’ Harrison, high school all-star quarterback and all-around asshole, caused his stomach to clench and sweat to build over his body in anxiety. Joey had known Trick his entire life. His older brother Anthony had been best friends with Trick since Joey was in diapers.

Joey could still remember the day his world shifted, and he’d gone from being a starry-eyed teenager to being a tarnished, bitter young adult. The memory had never left him and he carried it with him always, using it as fuel to push himself, to give no one else the power to hurt him. That fire was why he’d gotten a promotion so quickly after being hired as an intern straight out of college at a sports agency where he already had more than one client under his belt, including the Heisman Trophy winner Wesley Prince. His bosses had been ecstatic at his landing a big win like Prince. What they didn’t know was Prince’s proclivities in the bedroom. The reason Joey landed the contract with Prince had nothing to do with the deal he’d negotiated with the Dallas Cowboys, and more to do with the fact that Prince liked the size of Joey’s cock and that he knew how to use it.

A road sign appeared up ahead stating Fort Lauderdale was only a mere twenty miles away and Joey scowled, his heart thumping hard in his ribcage. He hated what he felt right then and how he could still feel it after all these years. It didn’t matter that he worked out two hours a day to maintain a flawlessly sculpted body, or how he kept his dirty blond hair styled deliberately unkempt so it fell into his dark green eyes precisely, or how he’d perfected his smile which could charm his way into any man’s pants. None of it mattered when it came down to how Trick made him feel inside. Like he was still the same nerdy, slightly chubby dork who’d followed him and Anthony around with hero worship in his eyes.

Joey had known from the time he’d turned thirteen he wasn’t interested in girls. He’d had eyes for no one but Trick. He’d noticed the way Trick’s body filled out, the way his muscles flexed when Trick and Anthony played football in the backyard, the way he smiled and the dimple that popped out whenever he did. Joey had seen the way he’d shot up an entire foot over the summer just before Anthony and Trick started high school. It wasn’t until Joey followed them into high school though, a year behind them, that Joey realized Trick would never see him the way he wanted him to.

He’d maintained a fantasy in his head of Trick coming out as gay and sweeping Joey off his feet, the two of them being a couple at Trick’s senior prom, the entire package. But then Joey started seeing Trick walking down the hallways of their high school with a new pretty girl on his arm almost every week. The knowledge Trick liked girls cracked Joey’s fantasy wide open, but it wasn’t until much later when he truly broke Joey’s heart.

Shaking his head, Joey refused to acknowledge the memories. He would get through the next week if it killed him and go back to his life. He had a good life and he sure as hell wouldn’t let Trick-fucking-Harrison ruin it. With resolve straightening his spine, Joey took his exit into Fort Lauderdale and made his way toward his childhood home, refusing to give into the insecurities he’d buried so long ago. Trick didn’t deserve to have any kind of power over him.