You missed me, too.
You just can’t say it.
And… that’s probably my fault.
“Can you talk to me for once, Wes?” I ask, feeling the pleasant burn in my calves.
He sighs. “Is everything okay with Kieran? No news is good news, right?”
“The situation is stable. For now.”
“And that means he’s not going to flip his shit and start a war?”
I nod. “As long as Roman doesn’t fuck with him, yes.”
He glares at me. “Roman isn’t going to do that.”
“Well,good, then.”
He’s silent for a while, and I wait for his next layer of ice to thaw as we run.
“Why do you suddenly want to talk to me at all?” he finally asks. “Never wanted to before.”
“Because Ineedto fuck you again.”
He looks over at me for a moment before looking away again.
“Go fuck someone else.”
“I don’t want to fuck anyone else,” I say, probably too loudly.
We’re running down the gravel path at the western edge of campus, over by manicured gardens that are now in peak bloom. The last breath of winter left after last week’s brief snow flurries, and now spring has stepped back in with a vengeance, warming everything under golden sunlight. Each tree is bursting with blooms or green buds by now, and the whole campus feels…
Awake.
Alive.
Ready for something new, something different.
I’ve been spending all week trying to get Kieran to chill the hell out and pump his brakes about Onyx, and the only reason it’s been working is because I’m pretty sure he’s afraid of Roman Petrov.
Today, finally, Kieran also told me that he quit taking triple-doses of stimulants. He threw out all of the pills he’d gotten from other students, and he told me he wants to reset and get more level-headed.
Thank. God.
He was a lot calmer this morning, and I feel like I can finally relax a little again.
Other than Weston trying to give me the world’s most frustrating edging experience of all time.
He wipes at his forehead with the back of his arm now as he runs, and I swear it’s like heknowshe’s the hottest fucking thing on campus.
“Somehow, I don’t believe that,” he mutters under his breath.
“Believe what?”
“That you don’t want to fuck anyone else. I’m sure you’re looking forward to the next Zenith party so you can get some other doe-eyed freshman guy to throat your cock or something.”
He cuts a corner sharply and heads up the looping path that will take us back to the center of campus.