Chapter 8
MATTEO
It’s Friday.
Tonight, I should be strutting in a sexy costume, grabbing a couple of condoms, and heading over to Alpha Alpha Mu’s party to find a girl who’s as eager to have fun as I am. Instead, I’ll be heading out to meet Alexei somewhere I can fuck him.
Alexei: Preston said no…
Alexei: You sure about this?
When I received his texts last week, I didn’t hesitate: I’m certain.
Only now that I’m about to commit to something neither of us can ever take back, I’m not feeling certain about anything.
Alexei told me he’d get things set up and asked if Friday would work for me.
Kind of wished we could have just gotten it over with, but the instructions require him to get a few things together for the ritual.
In the meantime, we’ve seen each other in the dorms and around campus, and kept our cool.
Acted as though everything’s totally normal and like I haven’t been thinking about fucking him all week.
Obsessing about it, even as I FaceTime with my mother.
“You haven’t been sleeping enough, have you?” she says, inspecting my face.
It would’ve been better not to call, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen or talked to them. I miss them, and I needed to see them, if only to hold on to what it felt like before I started stressing about Alexei.
Before I discovered magic was real.
“Just a lot of studying,” I lie.
If anything, I need to be getting my ass together and make sure to get work done so that this stuff with Alexei doesn’t interfere with the rest of my life any more than it already has.
“Hey, mister,” Dad says as he slides into frame, pulling a stern expression like he might have when I misbehaved as a kid. “You haven’t been returning our calls the past few weeks. I know you’re busy, but that’s no excuse.”
I feel like shit for doing that to them.
My parents are the best, and they don’t deserve me going MIA.
It’s just…I’ve had so much to think about.
Alexei has turned my world upside down, and I sure as hell couldn’t have chatted with them earlier in the week, when I probably looked like I was having a nervous breakdown.
“I’ll do better. What’s going on with you two?”
Dad gets into some of the drama at the school where he teaches, and Mom tells me about what she’s been dealing with at her law firm before switching topics to the new shed in the yard, their project for the past three months.
“I need to get over there and give you a hand,” I tease.
“We’re doing just fine with it,” Dad insists, “thank you very much.”
I laugh before checking the time on my phone.
Can’t believe it’s almost time to meet up with Alexei. Guess that’s what I get for calling them right before; although, I knew it would be a good excuse if they started asking too many questions.
“Did someone special just text?” Mom asks, angling her head and sporting a mischievous expression. “Think I didn’t notice the way your gaze drifted?”
She’s all suspicion, but I’m glad that despite her intuiting something, she couldn’t possibly guess what it is. “I’m about to head out to a party, that’s all.” I wish that’s all I was doing tonight… “Just gotta get my costume on.”
Mom pouts. “Okay, honey. Just keep us in the loop. At least text.”
“I will, I will,” I say, sounding annoyed, but really, appreciating how much they care. As far as parents go, I was lucky to have been chosen by two of the best people I know.
“And get some sleep,” she says in that affectionate way she has.
“Yeah, you’re not gonna attract all the girls with that mug if you don’t get some rest,” Dad teases.
I roll my eyes. “Whatever. Good night.”
“Night,” Dad says, and Mom calls out, “Have fun.”
If she knew what the past few weeks had been like, she’d know that fun isn’t in the cards for me. Not right now.
I approach my desk, assessing the sildenafil I got from some online doc.
One would think that taking this would be about having fun, but not for me apparently.
It’s twenty minutes until Alexei is supposed to come pick me up, and based on what he’s said about where we’re going, that’ll take fifteen minutes to get to, which should be enough time for this to kick in.
I grab a bottle of water from the minifridge and down one of the pills. I finish off the water with two Tylenol, since everything I read online suggested that would help prevent side effects.
Now I wait.
I’m not the kind who’s good at distracting myself, so I wind up pacing the room as time inches by.
Feels like hours have passed before there’s a knock on my door.
I throw on my jacket before opening it to find Alexei, his hands tucked in his pockets and avoiding eye contact.
He licks his lips, and my dick stiffens.
“Well, clearly you took it,” he says, looking at my bulge.
According to what I’ve read, the sildenafil is not supposed to work unless I’m sexually stimulated, which really shouldn’t happen just by Alexei being here. And this seems kind of early, but it could be a placebo effect.
“Yup. Good and ready,” I say, and he gulps before turning and starting down the hall.
We don’t talk as we pass through the dorm lobby, then go out the back, toward the woods. I wait until we’re on a trail, Alexei’s flashlight guiding us, before I ask, “You gonna tell me where we’re heading? Not everything has to be a big secret.”
“Did I not mention it already? Sorry, it wasn’t a secret. I’ve had so much else on my mind.”
“I can appreciate that. It’s not every day you have to get a spot ready to perform a sex spell with a guy you really are just starting to get to know.”
He seems to look at me for the first time, shining his light my way, making me squint. “The hell!”
“Sorry,” he says, turning the light away from me. “You shaved.”
So it wasn’t just my impression—he really was avoiding looking at me.
“Oh, yeah. Thought I should be as hygienic as possible for tonight.”
“I mean, I appreciate it, but the scruff was kinda hot.”
It’s so funny how flirty we can be with each other, especially with all that’s going on. Maybe that’ll make this easier.
“Sorry for disappointing you with the shave,” I say facetiously.
“You should definitely grow it back. Girls will go wild for that.”
“I don’t mind the compliments, but are you evading my question?”
“Shit. It actually slipped my mind when I saw you did that. Um…farther in the woods, there’s an old bottle factory that’s been out of commission for a few decades.
It’s on the same road as the old Methodist church, and it’s been cut off from everything when they built the freeway, so no one ever comes back here.
That’s where I’ve been setting up throughout the week. ”
“So you already got a little love nest ready for us?” I ask. He doesn’t laugh the way I was hoping. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be making jokes. I’m trying to make this less awkward.”
He pats my back. “Not a chance that’s happening tonight, but I appreciate you trying.”
I hope my humor’s the only thing that isn’t working tonight, but the firmness in my crotch gives me hope that we might be able to pull this off.
I try to come up with a conversation to lighten the mood, but there’s so much on my mind that nothing comes to me, so we walk in silence, both of us surely thinking about what we’re gonna have to do once we arrive at our destination.
When we come up behind the factory, Alexei leads the way. He moves with confidence, having taken this route a few times already, maybe even in the dark. He guides me through a space where there’s a loose board at a window, and we shine our lights as we navigate through it.
It’s the kind of run-down place that looks like it’d be the perfect setting for a horror film: Old pieces of machinery.
Cobwebs and debris from years of neglect.
Mustiness lingering in the air. Not the sorts of things I typically associate with getting in the mood, but that’ll already be an uphill battle, so I guess where we fuck doesn’t really matter.
Alexei leads me to the second floor, into what looks like an office, which he’s arranged for his ritual.
There’s a large desk on one side of the room, and in the middle he’s got an air mattress set up on top of a chalk-drawn pentagram, similar to the one Brad, Luke, Seth, and Cody sat around in the church cellar.
As I close the door behind us, Alexei turns on a lantern, then turns on a patio heater hooked to a battery.
“Where did you get that?” I ask.
“Online. Got a good deal on it and the battery. Mostly paid for shipping. We have enough to stress about without freezing our asses off.”
“And here I was looking forward to being the one to warm that ass,” I tease, and he glances over his shoulder, flashing a smile.
I’m relieved that joke hit better. I don’t know that I’m gonna make it through this if we have to be deadly serious throughout.
I set my bag on the desk, taking a few deep breaths as Alexei, on his knees by the air mattress, fishes through his bag. He retrieves some leaves and salt and creates a circle around the pentagram, connecting the points.
“Go ahead and take off your clothes,” he instructs, “then get in the circle before I close it off.”
“Don’t you need to take off your clothes too?”
He glances himself over before snickering. “Fuck. Yeah. I’m sorry. I’ve got, like, fifty things running through my head.”
It’s kind of adorable seeing him all flustered like this.
As he sets pouches on the mattress, I grab my bag and set it down on the side of the bed.
We stand face-to-face, just looking at each other for a few moments, until I accept this will be awkward as hell and remove my jacket.
This seems to get Alexei moving too, and we both strip down.
Alexei removes his shirt, revealing the scar on his abdomen, near his hip.
I noticed it at the ’80s party, and it looks like something he would’ve had for years, but I don’t remember him having it last year.