“Nick, you’re definitely losing with that hand, buddy. You need to take something else off.” It’s Jackson who’s speaking to me. He has to snap his fingers to get my attention.
I absent-mindedly slide down my shorts, not even caring where I set them.
“Oh, you’re Nick?” the girl beside me asks. I meet her pretty hazel eyes for the first time.
“Yeah,” I say.
Her face spreads into a grin. “Big Nick,” she says. Now she’s cuddling up close to me, her breasts pressed against my arm.
My brothers begin cheering. “Big Nick Energy! Big Nick Energy!” The whole room joins in. I feel my cheeks turning red, and this time, I’m not faking my shyness for attention.
“He’s not Big Nick anymore,” I hear a voice call out. I look over to see it’s Lucas, smiling from ear to ear. He seems quite proud of himself for making the announcement.
“Dude,” Connor says. “Not cool.”
I look around. All eyes are on me. My heart starts pounding against my chest. I lick my lips, dry as the desert. “Nah, it’s fine.” I try to shrug it off. “It’s true. The guys bet a thousand bucks I couldn’t go the month without having sex. So I took the bet. They’re wrong about me.”
“Don’t leave out the best part,” Lucas says. “Nick’s dick is locked up.” He pauses for dramatic effect. “In a cage.”
I shoot daggers at him with my eyes. So much for discretion.
“Wait, no way.” The girl beside me grabs a handful of my junk, then recoils. “Ohmygod, it’s all hard and weird. What is going on under there?”
I sigh, knowing this isn’t a subject that’s going away on its own. “I’m wearing a chastity cage. Basically it locks up my dick so I can’t get hard.”
“Ohmygod,” the girl says again.
“Whatever. Can we get back to the game, please?” I say.
“It’s your go, Nick,” Lucas reminds me, all too eagerly. “What have you got in your hand?”
I look down to see a pair of threes. Instantly, I feel the heat creeping up my neck. It’s too late to bluff my way out of this. I toss the cards down on the table.
“Only one more piece of clothing to take off,” Lucas so helpfully reminds me.
Everyone is staring at the outline in my briefs. They’re all expecting me to be ashamed, too. Run away like some little bitch. But that’s not Nick. Not now, not ever. I never back down from a challenge.
I tilt my chin defiantly. “So you guys all wanna see what’s under here?”
The crowd responds with wild enthusiasm. I take a deep breath, stand, and face the room.
“You know I’m still Big Nick,” I say, hooking my thumbs into my waistband. “A month from now, I’ll be letting this beast out of its cage and Big Nick Energy will be taking over the campus.”
“Just show us your dick,” a stranger says. I don’t even know who he is and he comes into my house ordering me around.
But I try to play it cool. “Take it down a notch, homo. I know you’re thirsty for this big D.”
“Quit stalling,” a husky voice commands from across the room. I look over to see it’s Andre. He’s leaning against the wall, arms folded across his chest, biceps bulging.
I swallow my pride and pull down my underwear. My eyes remain locked on Andre.
Then I hear a giggle. “I think he’s trying to get hard,” the girl beside me says. I look down to see her face is at eye level with my junk.
And she’s right. My dick, with a stubborn mind of its own, is straining against the cage. A long rope of pre-cum oozes from the tip. Everyone sees it.
Another girl chimes in. “Ew, it’s so pathetic.”
“You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to lock up my shit like that,” some loudmouth guy adds, like anyone asked for his opinion.