Chapter 3
Elias's howling with laughter next to him, which probably means every word was a huge mistake, but whatever.
Maybe two years is long enough to hold this inside.
"No one thinks your marriage is a PR move, Jagger," Antonio says gently.
"I do," Forbes says.
"Jesus Christ," Antonio says.
"You know you're allowed to have private thoughts that you don't share with other people, right?"
"And what would I possibly have to gain from that?" Jagger barrels on.
"Do you think I get off on the commissioner and half the league despising me or something?"
"I get off on Caldwell despising us," Elias says very unhelpfully.
"I mean, we don't think it's a PR move in that sense." Forbes looks to Prince and Omari, who both nod.
God, how pathetic are their lives?
How much time do they spend dissecting Jagger's?
"The way we see it, you got caught with your fuck buddy and ended up with your back against a wall."
"Yes," Elias says.
"I love fucking Jagger against walls."
Antonio makes a fake gagging noise, but then notices that Prince is doing the same thing and stops short.
"It's like...
you were fucking him because you got off on the forbidden aspect or whatever," Prince chimes in. "Then, Palmer pulls his idiotic move and the whole world finds out."
"Oh come on!" Antonio says.
"Why does your fucked up conspiracy have to drag me down too?"
"So, what's golden boy Jagger Maynard to do?
The way I see it, you had two options," Prince says.
"Either admit to the world that you were being a depraved freak with your sworn rival turned fuck buddy.
Or you marry him, fuck off to Evergreen, and spin it as a fairytale ending."
"It's an interesting theory," Jagger says.
He puts a hand on Elias's arm, a silent
I've got this
.
"Makes total sense, down to my casual fuck buddy moving to Auroria for me.
That happens all the time, it's a problem really.
The entire province of Amberland is just filled with men I slept with once."
"Hey!" Elias says, because of course this is where he draws the line.
"So what?
You expect us to believe you're actually in a loving, monogamous relationship with Elias Roth?" Forbes says.
"I don't expect you to believe any basic facts, considering you still don't think I tripped." Jagger's red in the face now, he's sure.
He may even be popping a vein.
He almost feels bad about ruining R.J.'s bachelor party.
But, well, he invited these assholes.
Hopefully he got in a lap dance or two before Jagger showed up.
"Holtz," Prince says.
Jagger physically cringes.
The old nickname feels like sticking an unwashed finger in an open wound.
"I don't know how you expect us to believe you just tripped.
One day you start fucking Roth, the next—"
"Okay, this is the part I don't understand," Jagger says.
"Do you really think we started seeing each other in, what, 2020?
You can't be that stupid, right?
I know you're not that stupid."
"Ooh, fun party game." Elias claps.
"Everyone go around and guess how old we were the first time I sucked Jagger's dick.
The answer might surprise you!"
Jagger laughs.
"Yeah, I wanna hear this."
R.J. groans.
"Let's all play a new game called everyone be nice and normal to each other."
"I think it was 2017," Omari says easily, like he's given this some thought.
Jagger's starting to think they're active members in those weird Hollister subreddits where teenagers zoom in on old photos of them for 'timeline clues'.
"Has to be," Forbes says.
"Obviously that check from Izael knocked some screws loose."
Omari and Prince both crack up.
Jagger wills himself not to think about all the hours they spent by his bedside, playing cards and shooting the shit while he recovered.
They always left with a warm, parting word lamenting his tough break and a homemade casserole from their wives.
Jagger swallows.
"Any other guesses?"
"I try really hard not to think about it," Prince says, which feels like a bold-faced lie at this point.
"Oh?
Takes a lot of effort not to, hmm?" Elias winks.
Prince scoffs, but ultimately says nothing.
Maybe the worst part of all of this is not a single one of them has spoken to Elias directly since they walked in. All these years spent hating him and they still can't seem to grasp that he's a person.
"Come on, guess something," Omari says.
"I wanna know."
"Mmm, you don't actually," Jagger says.
"Because I think it'll break your brains if you know we started hooking up our rookie season."
Once again, silence rolls over the table.
Antonio lets out a little exasperated huff, and R.J.'s drunk enough to laugh, but everyone else stares at him, stunned.
Like they don't believe him.
They probably don't.
"But Jagger," Elias says, still smirking.
"How is that possible?
You have won so many Champion's Cups, I thought you threw games for me!"
"We took turns throwing them, remember?
With our coin flip system."
"Coin flip?" Elias blows a raspberry.
"Only you could make cheating boring.
Why not best blowjob competition?"
"Best blowjob competition?" Remy says, coming back from the bar and placing their drinks on the table.
"How would you judge that?"
"You...
There's no way..." Forbes says.
He's finally regained his capacity for speech, which is unfortunate.
Jagger was starting to hope it was gone forever.
"There's no fucking way you started hooking up your rookie season."
"No." Elias shakes his head.
"Of course not.
Was summer before our rookie season."
"No shit, really?" Remy grins, either oblivious or apathetic to the tension at the table.
"How'd that happen?"
"Jagger got hard in the shower," Elias says.
"Oh fuck you!" Jagger's unable to stop the grin that takes over his face.
"You were preening."
"Preening?"
"Like..." Jagger waves a hand.
"Showing off.
And then you
jacked off
at me."
"What?" Antonio sputters next to him.
Jagger's pretty sure he can hear someone else choking on their drink.
"How do you jack off
at
someone?"
"Do you want a demonstration?" Elias asks.
"Oh fuck off, Roth."
"This is..." Prince says.
"God, this is fucked.
I can't believe you were lying to us the entire time."
"It wasn't about you!" Jagger says, his voice heated enough to burn the whole place down.
"It had nothing to do with you.
I fell in love.
Are you really telling me none of you can understand that?"
"You fell in love..." Prince says slowly.
And for a stupid second, Jagger has hope.
Hope that finally, he's going to get it.
"With Elias Roth."
He says Elias's name like it's a slur.