In Every Universe

14. Cameron

FOURTEEN

CAMERON

They’d had a weird, terrible schedule lately that left the team outside of Texas more than they were inside of Texas. The saving grace of Cameron’s current misfortune—being away from his best friend—was that said best friend was finally allowed to text.

Cameron was trying not to drown him in messages, and in his desperation to keep his mind off of Zacky, he gave his brother a call. Cameron’s brother, Chris, was nine years older than him. Significant enough that Chris had moved out when Cameron was still young. Chris had this weird, normal relationship with their parents that Cameron had never been able to access. Often, it felt like they had been raised by two different sets of parents.

Still, as adults, he and Chris were attempting to have a relationship. Chris picked up on the third ring.

“Hey, kid,” he said. Cameron could hear office bustle in the background. He thought Chris, in Toronto, might be done with work for the day, what with the three-hour time difference, but Chris was an architect and a workaholic. Of course, he was still there at seven p.m. “Nice last few games, huh?”

“Trying not to let this tiny streak get to our heads.”

“Speaking of heads, how’s Zack doing?” The background noise disappeared, and Cameron imagined Chris shutting his office door. For how much he worked, he never made Cameron feel like he was imposing upon him, or like he was too busy to take his calls.

“He’s all right. Concussion is getting better.” Cameron paused. Fuck, he needed to talk to someone about Zacky, and unfortunately, his first choice was…well, Zacky. He couldn’t talk to their teammates. He certainly couldn’t talk to either his parents or Zacky’s parents. Maybe he could talk to Chris.

“That’s good to hear.”

“Actually…can I tell you something…weird?”

“Lay it on me.”

“Did you hear he’s missing memories?”

“Yeah. I think you mentioned that in a text.”

“It is significantly more complicated, and weirder, than that.”

“What’s going on?”

“He woke up missing about three years of memories.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Yeah. And that alone would be enough to alarm anyone. But he isn’t just missing three years of memories. He has three years of…different memories.” Cameron braced himself to hear what his brother would think of that.

“I…don’t know what that means,” Chris said.

“He thinks he’s from a different universe. Like, he got swapped here after his head injury, and the Zacky I grew up with is in his universe. Presumably.”

“Fuck. What does his doctor think about that?”

“He hasn’t told anyone but me.”

“What is his other universe like?”

Cameron was glad that Chris didn’t seem too freaked out by his story and was willing to listen. “Starts the same. He and I play hockey as teens. We make it up to the A together.”

“What’s different?”

“What’s different is that we both quit hockey. That knee injury I got a few years ago, in the other universe, was career-ending. And Zack quit in solidarity.”

“Wow. I don’t know anyone who would quit hockey for me. Maybe Thea.”

“Yeah, well, in Zacky’s other universe, he’s my Thea. We got married.”

Chris paused for a second. “That makes sense” is the response he landed on.

“How?”

“I don’t think I’ve talked to you once in the last eight years where you didn’t bring up Zacky every single chance you got.”

Cameron took a deep breath. That was true. He brought up Zacky all the time, in any circumstance. But what else was he supposed to talk about? He and Zacky did everything together.

“My best friend hit his head scary hard, and when he woke up, he was in love with me. Or some version of me. And it’s been nice.”

The laughter on the other end of the line was warm. “So the person you never stop talking about under any circumstance is in love with you. And you’re enjoying that. It sounds like you’ve finally figured it out.”

“It isn’t that simple. He’s sitting there, longing for the man he married, who exists in a different universe. And I don’t think he’s going to get back there.”

“Maybe he’s longing for you, and the hit on the noggin shuffled things around enough for him to realize that.”

“Hmmm.”

“Maybe he got the sense knocked into him.”

“You don’t think it would be weird if Zacky and I were…”

“Married? You’re practically married already.”

Well, it’s not like he and Zacky hadn’t joked about that for years before this whole thing started.

“Hey, kid, you’re young. You found your person. Don’t waste any more time. Go for it. And tell me how it goes.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready for that. But thanks for talking to me. I’ll let you get back to blueprints or whatever.”

“Thanks for telling me. Let me know if you need to talk again. I’ll keep my mouth shut about it, don’t worry.”

Well, Cameron wasn’t sure what he’d wanted out of that phone call, but it felt good to tell someone what he was feeling. He didn’t know how to explain how he felt about Zacky other than absolute, unquestioned dedication. If Zacky wanted to get married right now, he would. He wasn’t sure where his romantic and sexual feelings were, but yeah, if Zacky asked, Cameron absolutely would legally bind the two of them together forever.

In Zacky’s universe, the two of them had sex. Cameron thought back to the night he woke up to Zacky’s erection rubbing against him. It had felt good to have Zacky that close. To have his warm breath on his neck, hips moving sensually. The embarrassment on Zacky’s face when he woke up and realized what was happening cut right through Cameron. He’d wanted to stop Zacky from running away.

And if he had, what would have happened?

He closed his eyes and eased onto his back until his head found the pillow. He spread his legs in anticipation and slipped a hand into his sweats to palm himself. He had been hard too, that night. It wasn’t the only time he’d woken up hard next to Zacky. Before, he’d chalked it up to a natural bodily reaction. Now…

He imagined Zacky staying, his warm body and hard dick pressed against Cameron. Cameron would whisper that everything was okay. That it was okay for this to feel good for both of them. His hand would find Zacky’s lower back under his sleep shirt to press them even closer together. He would notice how hot Zacky’s skin was and want more of it.

Blood rushed to his cock, and he stroked himself slowly as he imagined slipping out of his pajamas and helping Zacky out of his clothes. He knew what Zacky looked like naked because he knew what all of his teammates looked like naked. But in his imagination, he got to bask in the definition in Zacky’s stomach that Cameron could never achieve himself.

Cameron had seen Zacky’s body, but he’d never been able to explore it. All he had to rely on was his memory. Would he have found some lotion to slick them both up so they could rub off on each other? Would he have taken Zacky’s erection in his hand, feeling the girth of it as he stroked?

If the reaction of his actual dick to his fantasy was anything telling, yeah, he would have liked to touch Zacky’s dick.

He’d like to touch Zacky’s dick now.

Fuck. Did that come out of nowhere or had it been there for a while?

He loved the feeling of being close to Zacky, and he loved making him feel good. He loved taking care of him. Making Zacky come was a different way to accomplish those goals.

Cameron’s sweatpants were getting tight, so he slid them down under his butt and kept stroking himself. The fantasy got abstract, fragmented. An image of Zacky’s lips around his dick. Zacky’s head tipped back in pleasure. Zacky’s hands desperately scrabbling for him, like he needed Cameron or he would explode.

He was getting close. He could feel his orgasm building. Finally, he thought about what it would be like to have Zacky in front of him on his hands and knees, tossing a look over his shoulder as he egged Cameron on to fuck him harder.

“Fuuuuck,” Cameron groaned as he came, his orgasm streaking over the shirt he’d been wearing. It needed a wash anyway.

The aftershocks lasted forever, and he milked himself, thinking about holding Zacky in his arms after making him come, Cameron’s dick slowly sliding out of Zacky reluctantly.

As the waves of pleasure passed, and he was left with only his hotel room and his sticky hand, he realized that yeah, the idea of having sex with Zacky did it for him. He didn’t want to get home and make some kind of advance that he couldn’t back up.

He headed into the bathroom and pulled his shirt over his head, then got a washcloth and cleaned himself up. He used a different towel to dry himself off, but he was rough with the towel, and the bracelet on his wrist must have been on the brink of breaking off to begin with because suddenly a quiet cacophony of beads rained down on the bathroom sink.

“Oh, shit,” he said, trying to grab as many as he could before they fell down the drain.

He wasn’t very successful. He ended with a dozen yellow and black beads, a Z, a K, and both number beads. Zacky was right. If this had happened on the ice, he’d have gotten read his rights. He went to grab his phone to take a quick photo to send to Zacky and made a paper packet from a piece of the memo pad from his side table, just big enough for the remaining beads. He slipped it into a tiny pocket of his toiletry bag so it wouldn’t come unfolded.

Cameron

It broke :(

He sent Zacky the photo too. Now that he was past the initial surprise, he was sad. He’d loved that bracelet. And more importantly, that bracelet had gotten him a goal and several other good games.

Zacky sent back a frowny face of his own and a photo of him wearing Cameron’s bracelet. Maybe that would be lucky enough for them.

Zacky

We’ll figure it out when you get home. Don’t get in your head about it.

Cameron

You know that’s impossible.

Zacky

I know.

Zacky sent one more text with a string of hearts, and then Cameron’s phone rang.

“I wanted to check in,” Zacky said, his voice familiar and calming. This was exactly what Cameron needed. He’d thought it would be awkward to talk to Zacky so soon after jerking off to him, but things between them were rarely awkward. He told Cameron about getting hit on at the gym, and Cameron’s hackles rose. In the past, he’d never liked it when Zacky dated because then he had to split his time. Cameron preened when his short relationships ended and Zacky expressed his preference for spending his time with Cameron. Knowing he was Zacky’s preference felt like winning.