Ben banged his fist against the door-table hard enough to slosh my untouched tea. “Don’t we have rights or something?”
Malik leaned back in his chair, his face still and blank the way it always went when he didn’t want anyone to see him rattled. “Sure we do. And it’ll just drag things out, and we’llstillbe homeless at the end of it. Better to make a clean break now and find somewhere else.” Then his face tightened a fraction. “If we can.”
Twenty-two years old. A student. Broke, and feeling as if the rug has just been yanked from under me. Again.
I wasn’t surprised. The flat had always been one cough away from collapsing. The roof leaked. The heating worked only when it wanted to. The walls were thin enough to hear every argument, every laugh, every muffled groan through the night. But it had been ours. A terrible little patchwork life, but my own.
Now it wasn’t even that.
I rubbed my hands down my jeans, and they came away damp with sweat.
Darren muttered something about crashing with his sister. Malik had cousins. Ben was already texting his ex, which was either brave or suicidal.
I had no plan.
I had art supplies I couldn’t carry, an easel I’d dragged from place to place like a loyal dog, and a string of part-time jobs that barely paid my bus fare. The same jobs I’d pulled out of on occasion as the exams drew closer, because I needed to draw, paint, focus…
I also had nowhere to go.
I dug out my phone, my fingers trembling. I didn’t think. I didn’twantto think. Instead, I called the first number my brain offered me.
“Cam?” Gary’s voice came through rough and warm. My older brother always sounded like he’d just been laughing at something or yelling at a football match. “What’s up?”
I swallowed. My throat was a knot. “We… got evicted.”
Silence. “Shit. You okay?”
“No. I mean, yes. Hell,Idon’t know.” I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead. “We’ve got two weeks. Two weeks and I can’t—” My voice cracked like a plate.
I had an assignment to finish—who was I kidding? I hadn’t evenstartedit yet—but every artistic instinct had fled, pushed out by rising panic.
“Aw, Cam. I wish I was nearer. You’re always welcome here, you know that. Okay, there’s only the couch, but it’d do at a pinch.”
I let out a sigh. “Somehow I don’t think commuting every day between Manchester and London is a viable prospect.” I closed my eyes. Not that I’d have taken Gary up on his offer anyway. My brother’s place was small, cramped, with Gary’s girlfriend and their endless parade of friends coming and going. I could already picture myself tripping over bodies.
“Wait. I may have an idea.” Gary paused. “You remember Theo?”
I froze. The name still hit the same way it always had, like my brain skipped a beat before catching up.
Stupid question. Of course I remembered Theo. I’d seen him barely a month ago.
As if I was going to forget that night. I’d gone home from that bar, and the first thing I’d done when I reached the sanctuary of my small room was to lock the door and grab my dildo and lube.
Three loads in one night was a record. There were times when I wondered if having a dick inside me would produce the same results.
God, I hope so.
I knew exactly whose dick I wanted.Hadwanted since I was sixteen.
“I, uh, yeah.” I kept my tone careful.
“He’s in London now. Hammersmith, I think he said. The flat belongs to his aunt, but she’s away travelling at the moment, so he’s staying there. It isn’t a huge place, but then again, there’s only him. I’ll ask if you can crash there until you sort something permanent. He won’t mind. It’s not like you’re a stranger, right?”
My stomach flipped. What came to mind was Theo’s serious gaze that had made my sixteen-year-old pulse riot.
And he’s even hotter now.
I’d learnt that a month ago.