Chapter 17

Adrian's POV

Today I'm gonna be hanging out with Julian. He's cool, I really think he's a good person, but he's not a person I'm romantically wanting. I think he's an amazing guy, but like I've said before, physical attraction does not translate to romantical attraction, and that's what happened with Cameron, Devin, Aaron, and DeShaun for years. I've always thought the four of them were extremely attractive, but I've never wanted to date any of them.

Derek is the only person that I've actually wanted to date that's close to me. I'll be hanging out with him later today after I hang out with Julian. I'm gonna call Julian to make sure he still wants to hang out today.

I pull out my phone and find Julian's number, calling him. Devin never came back to our room last night. I think he was staying with Alicia all night. That's fine, I don't need someone in here with me.

"Hey Julian," I say after he answers the call.

"Hey, Adrian, what's up?"

"I just wanted to make sure we're still hanging out today."

"Oh, shit. I forgot. My family is in town this week. If you want to meet all of them, I think they would be cool with meeting you," Julian states.

"Alright, I'll go with you. Please tell me your family isn't weird or anything."

"They're fine," Julian laughs. "My brother's a little offputting, so sorry about that. I'm gay, but I'm not zesty. My brother is zesty as hell, so sorry if he might annoy you."

"It's fine, don't worry about it. When should we go over?" I ask.

"I don't know. It's kind of early right now, and I just got out of the shower, so maybe in 20 minutes or so, if that's alright with you."

"That sounds good. I'll see you then."

"Yup. See you then."

I hang up and get ready. It's weird hanging out with someone that you know has feelings for you, it's just kind of confusing. A guy likes me and I'm willingly hanging out with him as just friends. I like him as a friend though, so I don't think it's really that uncomfortable. It's just weird and confusing.

20 minutes later, I leave my room and go downstairs and Julian is sitting on a chair downstairs, waiting for me to come downstairs.

"Hey, what's up," Julian says, dapping me up. We begin to walk out towards his car.

"Nothing much, how about you?"

"Same as you, I guess. I'm glad my family is here, so that's something."

"Do they know you're gay?" I ask and he nods.

"Yeah. I came out to them first, before any of my friends, and they're cool about it. I think I told you before, I have a sister that's married and a younger brother, so this generation is probably not gonna be the end of the bloodline."

I chuckle a little at this. "Are you sure your zesty brother will be any help?"

Julian laughs as well. "I don't know. He's unbelievably zesty, so I wouldn't really be surprised if he turns out to be gay. I don't care that much, obviously, because I'm gay too. I just hope my parents are fine with raising two gay sons. And by the way, my sister was with 6 different guys during high school, so they also raised a thot daughter."

"Damn, that's rough as a parent. At least your sister's married now."

"Yeah. I'm happy for her. Don't tell anyone I said this, but her husband is hot. Also, don't tell my brother or sister about anything I just told you," Julian says.

"Alright, yeah, I won't. It'll be in the back of my mind. I'll see the husband, I can judge him myself," I state.

"Yeah. But you'll like him. He's tall and blonde."

"Is that your type?" I ask sheepishly.

"Not specifically. I don't really have a type. If you're hot, you're hot, that's it basically."

"Oh."

"What's your type?" he asks me this time.

"Uh-ba-basically the same as you," I lie. Again, tall guys with blonde hair are my type. Like Derek.

Me and Julian talk for the rest of the drive to wherever his family wanted to meet. He said they wanted to meet at a Mexican restaurant. I fuck with Mexican food heavy, I can't even lie. I just have to limit the amount of tortilla chips I eat before actually getting my real meal. It's just so fucking addicting, it's hard not to eat a lot of it.

We eventually get to the Mexican restaurant, which is in a really nice part of LA. Apparently, Julian's family got a whole private room. I'm surprised Julian was fine with me just intruding on this family gathering. It seems like a lot, because I've only known him for a month, plus, we're not even dating.

"Remember, please don't say the things I told you before about my family. I don't think my brother would like to know that I think he's zesty, and I'm sure my sister doesn't want you to know that she was a thot and has a fine ass husband," Julian rambles.

I smile at him. "Yeah, of course. I won't snitch on you, don't worry."

"Thanks, Adrian."

"No problem."

The two of us walk into the restaurant and find the back room, which is where Julian's family is supposed to be. When we walk in, everyone turns their heads to us and starts a massive uproar. It's like an entire family gathering, it looks like his whole extended family is here.

"Julian!!!" a middle aged man yells, getting up out of his seat and giving Julian a hug.

"Hey dad," Julian says, grinning while hugging his father.

"Hey Julian, how have you been?" a middle aged woman asks.

"Good. How have you been, mom?"

"Same as you," she smiles.

"What up, unc," a smaller version of Julian asks.

"I'm older than you, but I'm not a senior citizen," Julian states.

"Who is this?" the kid asks.

"He's my friend."

"Hi, I'm Adrian," I say, holding my hand out for this kid to shake.

"Oh my God, I'm finally getting another brother in law!? About damn time you bring another guy to a family gathering, Julian, we were waiting on you." So this is Julian's brother.

Julian sighs very audibly. "Noah, he's just my friend," Julian states.

"Sure. That's how it starts. That's how it starts. I'm excited to see you two at Christmas in matching pajamas," he says.

"Oh my God. Adrian, I'm sorry. I didn't think my stupid brother was gonna be like this today," Julian says, making sure Noah heard that.

"Wow! Wow! Too far bro, you know I'm right," Noah says.

I am so fucking embarrassed right now.

"Noah, just because I have a friend, that happens to be a boy, doesn't mean he's my boyfriend," Julian states.

"I mean, it would make sense if it were Harrison, or Kai, or Jax, but I've never seen this guy before, so something must be going on here."

"Shut up."

"Adrian! Are you gay?" Noah asks.

"Uh, I do happen to be gay," I reply.

"See? Just be for real, Julian."

"We're literally just friends. Nothing more, lil bro. Two gay guys can be friends without having feelings for each other, just because we're both gay doesn't mean we want each other. Just like how you have female friends. Are you dating them? Are you dating them, Noah? Are you in love with Chloe?" Julian fires back. Did he just admit to not having feelings for me anymore or is he just trying to defend himself?

"No, but that's different."

"How, dumbass, how is that different," Julian asks.

"I don't know. Whatever. I am willing to bet $1,000 that I don't have on Adrian coming to San Fran for Christmas... as your boyfriend."

"I'm willing to take that bet and bet $1,000 that I do have," Julian replies. Wow, is he actually for real or is he just trying to get money from his little brother?

"Alright. Anyways, I'm hungry so I'm gonna go back."

"Finally," Julian mutters under his breath. I laugh a little.

"Your brother is just the best, isn't he?" I ask and Julian shakes his head.

"I'm sorry, about all of that. I didn't think this would happen, usually his midget ass is decently behaved, but clearly not."

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

"Oh, great, here comes my sister and her hot piece of ass husband," Julian says quietly to me before changing his voice. "Hey, Maya, hey Carter."

"Hey, Julian. This your boyfriend?" Maya asks, pointing at me.

"Okay, this conversation is done. This is not my boyfriend, this is just one of my friends," Julian states.

"Then why is he here?"

"Because I invited him and said he could come? I don't know why everyone thinks he's my boyfriend, because we're literally nothing more than friends."

"I don't know, Julian. Just look at him. Hold up, babe, don't get jealous," Maya looks at her husband before returning her attention to me and Julian. "He's really hot."

My face heats up and gets red. It's like I'm not here but they can still see me for some reason. I'm getting super uncomfortable.

Julian inhales dramatically, which I approve of very much, because I'm dramatic if I want to be as well. "Maya, I don't have a boyfriend right now, alright? This is my friend, Adrian, who is a new friend of mine, and mom and dad always want to know who my friends are, and I'm just keeping them updated on my awesome friends," he rambles.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I'm Maya, this ray of sunshine's older sister," she holds her hand out, and I shake her hand.

"I'm Adrian, it's interesting to meet you."

"This is my husband, Carter," she says.

"Nice to meet you," he smiles, shaking my hand. This motherfucker is taller than Derek, holy shit. Still doesn't come close in appearance, but whatever. That's not a title that anyone can win easily.

"Nice to meet you."

"Alright, we should sit down, you can sit next to me and I'll make sure no one gets confused about why you're here, okay?" Julian asks and I nod.

We take a seat at the corner of the table. I'm at the direct corner, and with Julian's body blocking me from other people seeing me. I don't know if he did it on purpose, but I'm glad he did. I don't want to be pestered by his family anymore. They're funny, but I don't love being asked if I'm his boyfriend or being called hot. It's flattering but embarrassing.

Lunch goes smoothly. I answered way more questions about myself than I expected to, but outside of a couple of awkward questions asked about me and Julian's relationship, nothing else was really brought up. Julian shot down those questions pretty quickly. I'm really happy that he knows the state of our friendship right now, and he gets it.

Once we're done with lunch, me and Julian leave the restaurant to go back to UCLA, where I will be hanging out with Derek for the afternoon. I'm happy with today, two cool guys that I enjoy hanging out with.

"Thanks for letting me intrude your family gathering," I tell Julian in the car.

"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry, I think they didn't mind. It was barely a family gathering, I don't know why they're doing this while my idiot brother has school, but whatever. He needs school too, he's fucking up big," Julian says.

"Damn. That's bad."

"Yeah," Julian says, before a long pause ensues. "You got any plans for this afternoon? I'm hanging out with my teammates, so that's fun."

"Yeah, I have plans with Derek. We made up, we're friends again, and we have some lost time to get back."

"That's good to hear."

"Yeah."

Derek's POV

I'm waiting in the lobby of the dorm for Adrian to get here so we can hang out. I think we're probably just gonna chill in one of our rooms, just yapping about anything. I don't want anything more than that. He's the only person I want to talk to right now, not just because I want to make sure he's doing alright, but because he's a funny, great guy that I like to have as a friend.

Soon enough, Adrian and Julian enter the lobby, laughing with each other. For some reason, an indescribable feeling comes up in my chest, but the second Julian walks in a different direction from Adrian, who is walking towards me, it goes away.

Was that jealousy? I've felt real jealousy before, but that was kinda different. Cameron kissing Aaron got me jealous, but Adrian and Julian laughing with each other just gives me a different kind of feeling.

"Hey, Derek," Adrian says, smiling at me. "What are we gonna do today?"

"Nothing, basically. Just chill in one of our rooms, that would be cool."

"Alright, that sounds great. Devin is gone right now, out with Alicia all day. I think they're out with Cam and Aaron having lunch with Aaron and Alicia's mom," Adrian states.

"Oh. That's kind of cute. They're like a whole family, basically."

"Yeah. Let's go."

We get to Adrian's room, and he opens the door and we both sit down on the couch immediately. Again, these couches are fucking amazing. They are very much sleep adequate as well. I'm surprised a dorm room has a couch this nice, but I keep forgetting that we're football players and we get significantly nicer rooms, couches included.

"So, how was lunch with Julian?" I ask Adrian and he grimaces.

"It was a whole entire family gathering. Everyone thought we were dating. We're not, I think I've told you that, but it was so awkward."

"Oh. Sorry about that. That seems really fucking annoying."

"Eh. It was fine, Julian kept denying it, and people eventually believed him," Adrian says before moving his hand towards his mouth and chewing his nails.

"Hey, is anything wrong?" I ask and Adrian grimaces again.

"I have literally no form of feelings for Julian, but I don't really want to tell Julian that because he told me he has feelings for me, and I will just feel so bad."

Adrian begins to breathe a little faster, still chewing his nails. He looks stressed about this, and I don't want him to be stressed about this.

"Hey, look at me, Adrian," I say, getting his attention. "Sometimes, I feel like you're too nice for your own good."

"How?"

"You just want people to be happy. That's so amazing, and you're an amazing person, but you have to accept that you have your own feelings and they need to be taken into account," I tell him.

"I know, but I'm still gonna feel horrible for him."

"Did he say he loved you?" I asks and he shakes his head.

"No, he just said he likes me and has feelings for me."

"Well, I feel like if you tell him that you don't share those feelings, he'll understand and respect your decision. Julian is a great guy, he wouldn't just ignore your feelings and continue to try to pursue you despite your lack of interest in him."

"You think he would just stop having feelings for me?" he asks.

"Let me tell you something that I really don't want anyone else knowing. But I trust you with my secrets, which I should've been doing for the last two months, but whatever," I start. "I had a huge crush on Cameron."

"Didn't all of us?" he asks and I smile at him.

"Like, I had a massive crush on him. I would see him shirtless in the locker room and barely be able to look away."

"You had feelings for him?" Adrian asks.

"Yeah, I did."

"Is that why you looked so upset after the championship game?"

"Yeah. I was so broken. That's why I fucked that guy in the locker room, because I needed a rebound. I think he needed a rebound too, the vibes he was giving to me were completely not romantical and he straight up said 'thank you for helping me out' after we were done. It was really weird," I ramble.

"Do you still have a crush on Cam?"

"I still have physical attraction to him, but do I want him and I to be in a relationship? God no. Aaron's my best friend, and I love Aaron, so I would not in a million years take the love of his life away from him. I am sure I have literally no feelings for Cameron anymore."

"Wow. So you think he might lose feelings for me?" he asks.

I shrug. "Maybe."

"Okay.

"Is anything else bothering you?" I ask.

"Well, I don't really know how to tell him that I don't share his feelings."

"Well, just let him down easy. Don't rush it, don't just say 'I don't like you' and then walk away. Explain that you would really love for you and him to stay friends. He's a great guy, he would probably understand. If you've already basically told him before that you don't have the same feelings as him, he will understand."

"I know, but he introduced me to his family," Adrian explains. "That's not something a friend of one month does."

"Well, you said people kept thinking you were his boyfriend. Did he deny that?" I ask and he nods.

"Yeah. He kept having to remind everyone that we're just friends. I actually really appreciate that, it was nice of him."

"So he basically was introducing a friend of one month."

"Yeah, I guess so," Adrian says.

"Just don't stress about it."

"Oh shit."

"Huh?" I ask.

"I just remembered how Kai and Jax told me that Julian is really sensitive when it comes to things like this," Adrian states, bringing his hand back to his mouth, chewing his nails even more.

I softly grab ahold of his wrist and pull his arm away from his mouth so he stops biting his nails, and I look him in the eyes, smiling at him.

"Hey, don't worry. Don't bite your nails either, I don't like seeing you upset or stressed," I tell him.

He looks at me with a look of almost disbelief, maybe surprised at how I'm acting. I don't even know how I'm acting like this. This is somehow all natural, all these things I'm saying to him I'm barely thinking about as they come out of my mouth, they're just coming out naturally.

"Remind him that you still want to remain friends. You do want that, right?" I ask and Adrian nods.

"I do want to stay friends with him, he's really cool."

"Yeah, so just keep letting him know that you don't want to stop hanging out with him. You just don't have feelings for him. I mean, technically, you have been hanging out with him as just a friend recently, and he knows that, right?"

Adrian nods before talking. "Yeah, he knows we're just friends. He has been fine with it. Wait, the thing is though that he's basically waiting for me to catch feelings for him at this point. I told him that I want to hang out with him to see if I catch feelings for him, but that never happened and I don't think it will."

"Does that change that much?" I question.

"Not really."

"Exactly. So don't worry about it, you'll be fine. I get where you're coming from though. You're an amazing person, with such a good heart, it really doesn't surprise me that you want so badly to make sure other people are alright."

He smiles at me. "Thanks Derek. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. Why are you gonna tell him now?"

"So he doesn't keep having a false sense of something happening between us. Again, I feel so bad that I have to do this, but I don't want him to think that me and him could be a thing. He's attractive, anyone with eyes can tell that. He won't have any trouble getting a boyfriend as long as they share the feelings," Adrian rambles.

"I could see if Damian wants to go on a date with him, Damian already kind of knows Julian, they could be a good couple lowkey."

"Yeah. They would be cute. Damian doesn't seem like someone that's outgoing," Adrian says.

"I agree. But he's been going on dates with a different guy. I only said I might try to set him up with Julian because he doesn't seem totally interested with the guy he's going out with right now. Clashing personalities, maybe."

"I feel like Julian and Damian do have clashing personalities though."

"I don't know. I feel like Julian could make Damian not a real life dry texter," I joke.

Adrian laughs. "Yeah, that's true."

"Do you wanna watch something? I'm sure we can set this TV up ourselves, we don't need Devin and Alicia here to deal with it for us."

Adrian smiles at me, and for a moment, I swear to God I saw a dimple on his cheek. It was really pretty, I don't know how I didn't see it before.

"Yeah, sure, that sounds great," Adrian replies.

"Cool."

Me and Adrian end up spending all afternoon setting up the TV, and we barely finish with it before Devin and Alicia walk in. The four of us watch TV together, cramped on the couch, which would be miserable if I hated the people I was sitting with, but I really like everyone I was sitting next to.

I don't know what's going on with me, but all of a sudden, I've become a complete softy, and I don't mind it.

A/N: Title reference!!! Anyways, I feel like I've kind of created a story farm with this universe. I kind of do have plans for a book in the very far future (I'm talking after at least 3 more spinoffs, but it will still probably happen) for Julian's brother. Honestly, if I lose motivation to keep writing, I will just give the rights of these characters to someone that would actually like to continue this story. Slow burn for so many books might kill me or make me go crazy, but I'm still cranking these chapters out. Thanks for reading!!!