Sacrifices Worth Making

Eighteen-year-old Shane Larson has just two goals in mind when he moves from his hometown of Telluride, Colorado, to nearby Denver: surviving his freshman year of college and gearing up for a return to competition as a professional snowboarder and skateboarder. An injury has kept him sidelined from both sports for nearly a year, but now, fully recovered, he’s anxious to get back on the slopes at the start of the winter season. Public interest is great, not just because of his past successes but also because he remains the only openly gay athlete in either sport. He’s used to being talked about, and he’s used to being stared at. But when he catches fellow student Nathan Pearce staring at him on the first day of classes, it’s for an entirely different reason. Nathan doesn’t know anything about Shane; all he knows is that he wants to change that, because he’s far from home and could use a friend. Shane could, too, but he’s fresh off a painful breakup, with no interest in dating again anytime soon. Luckily, that’s okay with Nathan— he wants a [best] friend more than a boyfriend, anyway… This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. Dear Author, I think I might be in love. No. I am in love with that man beside me. And I’m pretty sure he’s in love with me. Don’t think he’d have moved across country with me, if he wasn’t. So, we’re in love. And it’s great. Really. Except the sex… Don’t get me wrong, the sex is damn awesome. The things that man can do with his tongue… But I can’t help but feel that he misses it, that whole shoving his cock into some dude’s ass, thing. And we— I— tried. God knows I tried. I thought maybe it would get better… that I would get better. So we switched positions, we tried toys, watched more porn than was probably healthy… but it never stopped feeling wrong. I hated feeling that wrong when he was looking at me like I was everything. So I told him the truth. And we stopped. He still looked at me like I was everything— except I didn’t feel like I was lying when I looked back. But there’s some part of me that wonders if he still wants it. Or, gods, if he needs it. ’Cause I can’t be that for him, and that kills me. What do I do if the man I love needs something I can never give him? Photo Description: Sunlight streams through an open bedroom window, illuminating two young men. One, seated on the floor with his back against the side of the bed, sports short brown hair and a trimmed beard. The other, lying horizontally across the top of the bed, has short black hair and a smooth face. The back of his neck and head rest against his partner’s shoulder and chest, respectively. Eyes closed, they both look perfectly content. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.