“I feel like you’ve been avoiding me lately, Joe. Are you mad at me?”Steve and I were both naked as he asked me this.No, we hadn’t been having sex. We were both standing in the open shower of our dorm.It was early evening on Thanksgiving. I’d bugged out of my family get-together right after the meal was over. Although we all usually got along pretty well, there had been some weirdness and dysfunction this year: subtle digs about dishes others had brought, one uncle expressing his views a bit too freely. Nothing awful, just an unpleasant vibe, and the passive aggressiveness, usually subtle, was turned up a notch. I was in no mood for bullshit this year.So I had slipped out with one of my cousins after dinner, had a beer with him at the bar to commiserate, and then raced right back to the dorm. I immediately hit the shower to clear my head and wash away the ickiness of the family tension. The dorm was deserted, and I looked forward to an evening alone in which to decompress.Until Steve walked in. Now things were just as tense as they’d been at the family dinner.I’d met Steve three years earlier at Freshman Orientation, ironically the very same day I’d said goodbye forever to Laura, my first true love, as we both went off to college.Eager to start my new life, I had made a number of fast friends that first day, Steve among them. He and I had clicked immediately. Similar tastes in music and movies, stuff like that. Unlike me, he was openly gay. Unlike some (publicly) straight guys, that didn’t bother me in the slightest, though I had no sexual interest in him whatsoever.Although we were good friends and had now known each other for some time, I hadn’t revealed my bisexuality to him. Somehow I wasn’t sure gay people would always accept my bisexuality any more than straight people would. So like most men in my situation, I kept my ideas to myself.Steve and I lived on the same floor this year, so we hung out quite a bit. I’d had a girlfriend, Francine, for most of the fall, but when I wasn’t with her, I was often hanging out in his room shooting the shit. I felt close enough to him to talk about not only my relationship with Francine, but my earlier one with Laura too – though neither in deep sexual detail, of course.Then, one night after we’d had a couple of beers, there was some light banter about sex between Steve and a couple of his other gay friends who were there, and he asked, “What isvecbahis about you? I bet you’ve got a nice package there.”In retrospect, I realize he probably was just teasing and not actually hitting on me, but I didn’t take it the right way. I quickly redirected the conversation quickly to something else … and afterward I kind of avoided hanging out with Steve. I know it was childish and homophobic, but I was really uncomfortable somehow.It wasn’t because I was interested, at least consciously. For whatever reason, my man-on-man fantasies always involved another like-minded bi guy. Maybe that was somehow less threatening? In any event, the idea of being with a totally gay man hadn’t been on my radar, and I honestly had never thought of Steve in any kind of sexual way.Besides which, Francine had made it clear she felt threatened by my sexual attraction to other men, even though I had no problem staying faithful and there was no actual threat at all. It seemed hypocritical to me, since we had first gotten together as a foursome involving her other roommates, as detailed in Part 10 of this series. But she had disavowed that night’s girl-on-girl activities completely as a one-time experiment, so maybe she found it particularly unnerving that my same-sex experimentation was not one-time. In any case, she never found herself able to trust me, and dumped me the week before Thanksgiving.So it was that on this Thanksgiving night, I was a ball of frustration, enjoying a shower to cleanse my hurt feelings from being dumped by Francine, as well as all the family sewage that had bubbled up at Thanksgiving dinner. At last, I was blessedly alone with my thoughts … when in walked Steve. That sure didn’t help my mood.Apparently, he and I were the only two guys who’d come back to our floor of the dorm that night, and now we were both naked – literally, and as it would turn out emotionally – next to each other.After some brief small talk, I explained why I’d returned to the dorm early.He said that he too had come back to escape his family. He had come out to them today at Thanksgiving dinner, but it had not gone well. His sister was supportive, but his other siblings and cousins took it coolly, and the older generation reacted downright poorly – including his father. They ended up fighting, and then his mother and father ended up fighting. He left in the middle of all that, and didn’t even know isveçbahis giriş how the evening resolved.So he was in a far deeper world of hurt than I, and I guess in the mood to cut through crap and weirdness. Maybe in my state, I was too, although sex was not on my mind at the moment.”If you’re mad at me about something, please tell me.”I paused for a minute, then reminded him of when he’d made comments about my “package”. Recognition hit his face.”Oh, oops. Gosh, I’m sorry about that, Joe. You know me, I run off at the mouth sometimes. I was a little drunk and just talking shit. Look, I know you’re straight. Please, I didn’t mean anything by it. I really wasn’t trying to hit on you.”He was so candid and open in his apology – which was emblematic of his personality anyway – that I felt terrible. Especially knowing what he’d just been through today, my little butt-hurt seemed pretty inconsequential.I realized I’d been a jerk, and told him so. Of course he didn’t mean anything by it! I should have known that, and just told him right away that his comment bothered me, so we could have moved past it a long time ago.”Oh, it’s fine. Believe me, that’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me today. Well, except for my sister, who is the ONE family member who supports me.””Sorry, that’s really shitty. I hope they come around and realize you’re the same Steve they’ve always known.””Thanks. Maybe they will someday. It did feel good to finally be rid of that secret.”I guess I felt disarmed by his bravery, and though I was still sorting through my feelings it bothered me I still hadn’t been fully honest with him all these years. “Um … so you’re good at keeping secrets, huh?”He shot me a serious look. “You bet your straight ass I am. If you tell me you just robbed a bank, or fucked a little old lady and her sister last week – I will not tell a soul. Nuh-uh. Secrets are sacred.””Ok. Um, so … how do I put this? Well … I’m not completely straight.””Ahh, a little hetero-flexible, are we? Somehow that one slipped past my gaydar, but sometimes you bi guys can be even better at hiding it than we are. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. And good for you! That’s a big step, coming out to someone like that … especially while you’re naked.““It’s actually why Francine dumped me. She could never me to be faithful and stay away from other guys, even though I never would have cheated on her isveçbahis yeni giriş – with a girl or a guy.”“Wow, Joe. That is really shitty and narrow-minded. Sorry, it’s probably hard to hear right now, but there are plenty of women who won’t hold your interests against you. And there are some who find it hot.”“Thanks.”“You’ll find them, and maybe more guys too – now that you don’t have to avoid us.” He held up his hands. “Sorry, I don’t mean personally, of course. Just saying guys, generally, that you might be interested in. Besides, you wouldn’t be the first guy who likes a little dong on the side, but only from other bi guys like yourself. Honestly, I don’t know how you ever find each other.””Well, maybe we mostly don’t. It’s only happened a few times.””Just so you know the pool is bigger than maybe you realize, we aren’t contagious. If a gay guy gave you the best blowjob in the world, you’d still like women if you liked them before. If there’s anyone who knows you can’t change who you’re attracted to, it’s someone who’s gay.””Well, and I think it would be weird getting with someone who’s gay. I’d hate to lead him on.” He gave me a patronizing look. “I mean, I mostly like women. So it couldn’t go anywhere.”He chuckled. “Oh, Joe. GO anywhere? Believe me, THAT is not a concern. Maybe you haven’t heard, but a lot of gay men are kind of known for having no-strings sex, and then going on being friends as if nothing happened?”Of course! Once he said it I realized how ignorant my thinking had been. He continued, “We never let sex ruin a good friendship. But we also don’t let friendship ruin the chance for good sex.”Well, duh! With this irrational mental block removed, I suddenly saw possibilities. Including one standing next to me.I became aware that in my rebound state after getting dumped by Francine – ironically, because I liked dick – I was really hungry for dick.”So … if – hypothetically – you and I had sex, it wouldn’t change our friendship?””Of course not!” He paused a moment and smiled. “Why? Are you thinking about it after all?””Well, I don’t know,” I said equivocally. I couldn’t help but notice that his penis, while not yet hard, had grown.It twitched a little as he noticed me glancing at it.”Look, I wouldn’t let a fling affect our friendship, but I would need to know that you won’t let it affect our friendship. You really think we could see each other tomorrow and say hi to each other in the hallway same as before, after having my dick in your mouth? No awkwardness like – ahem! – the last few weeks? No one would know about it but us, and we’d still hang out together? As if nothing had happened?”