Chapter 3 – James
Chapter Three
JAMES
“ H ailey, can I please speak to you for a minute?” Leon growled before stomping off across the courtyard.
James and Hailey exchanged a look before they both followed after him.
“He should have been a werewolf for Halloween,” Hailey murmured to James, who gave a surprised laugh.
Back in their conflict mediation session, James had compared Leon to a werewolf in his head to try to ignore how low and sexy his voice sometimes got. In this case, though, he really was acting like a werewolf. He was practically foaming at the mouth as he turned on James and Hailey.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Leon asked, and Hailey immediately crossed her arms over her chest.
Something in James’ gut squirmed uncomfortably. He always hated it when people fought in front of him. His parents fought in front of him for years, until his mom got sick. Then the fighting stopped completely, and it took James a while to figure out that, somehow, that was actually worse.
“Leon—” James tried to say.
But Leon held his hand in the air to silence him. “Do you think I don’t know this is the haunted house your mom wouldn’t let you go to without a chaperone?”
Hailey huffed, and James wouldn’t have been surprised if she stamped her foot. “It’s just because you have to either be eighteen or have someone with you who’s over eighteen—but Carly, Jeb, and Zach weren’t originally going to come with us, and now they’re here, and they’re eighteen.”
Leon’s eyes narrowed. “Is that really the only reason she didn’t want you coming to this alone?”
“Yes! Which is so unfair. I’ll be eighteen in two months, and it’s just a stupid rule anyway.”
Leon sighed and pressed two fingers against the bridge of his nose. “And if I were to call her right now, she would agree with this?”
Hailey glared at him, and he stared right back.
Finally, her stance shifted, and she dropped her arms. “Yes. That’s why she didn’t want me to come because she didn’t want to go as the over-eighteen person, and we didn’t have anyone in the group who was old enough. You can try calling her if you want, but she never answers when she’s on shift.”
Leon closed his eyes and pressed his fingers even harder against his nose until his knuckles turned white, contrasting with the obsidian ring he often wore on his middle finger.
One of the teens called over to them, and Hailey turned around to yell, “Just wait a fucking second, Zach.”
Leon’s eyes popped open, and he slowly—dangerously slowly—turned his head to look at the group. “Is Zach The Joker?”
“Yeah?”
“And he’s eighteen?”
Hailey scrunched up her eyebrows. “Yeah? I just said that.”
“No,” Leon said.
Hailey’s arms crossed so fast that James was surprised she didn’t throw her phone across the courtyard. “What do you mean, no?”
“No, you’re not going with him.”
“I’m not going with him . I’m going with all my friends!” she said, throwing out her hand to gesture at the group, again impressively holding onto her phone the whole time.
James glanced over at the kid, Zach, and caught him staring at Hailey. Oh, boy. James could guess why Leon was being so defensive.
“Hailey,” James said slowly, “I think Leon’s worried about you.”
The two neighbors looked at him, and he wondered if maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. Too late now, though. How did he put this delicately?
“Sometimes, at scary movies or on scary rides or at haunted houses like this, guys make excuses to hold your hand or put their arm around you, claiming it’s so you don’t get scared,” James said.
Leon had that skeptical eyebrow raised in his direction again, so James hurried to clarify, “But don’t be fooled by that.
It might seem chivalrous, but really he’s doing it because?—”
“Because he’s actually a pussy and wants to hold your hand ’cause he’s scared,” Leon finished.
James gaped at him. “Leon! You can’t say that!” he squeaked, wheeling around so he was only facing Hailey. “No, he wants to hold your hand because, unfortunately, teenage boys are often only focused on one thing.”
“Ahhh…” Leon said.
But before he could say anything else, Hailey snorted. “Yeah, pussy, I know. I’m not some ignorant kid.”
James’ jaw practically hit the cracked pavement, and Leon guffawed.
Hailey shook her head and reached forward to pat James’ shoulder. “Don’t worry, James. Zach and I are just friends. It’s actually Catwoman I’m interested in.”
Well. That would show him for assuming.
“Oh, uhm, well…okay, I guess that’s a bit better?—”
“Don’t stereotype, little mensch,” Leon said, stepping up behind James to throw an arm around his shoulders. “Chicks can chase skirts just as much as dudes can. Don’t let anyone hold your hand, Hailey. You’re a strong, independent woman.”
Hailey rolled her eyes with perfect teenage finesse. “Okay, whatever.”
“How are you getting home afterwards?” Leon asked, his joking tone gone as quickly as it had come.
“I…assume one of the others will take me home?” she said, but she seemed a lot less sure.
“And you’ll call me if for even a second it seems like you don’t have a ride home figured out?”
Hailey rolled her eyes again. “God, you worry too much. Can I go now?”
Leon’s arm tensed around James’ shoulders, but he didn’t say anything.
Hailey narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh my god, if you’re so worried, you can wait here for us—but I bet James won’t be happy if you ruin his night.”
“I—“ James tried to say, well, what, he wasn’t sure, but definitely something—but Leon cut him off.
“We could do the haunted house ourselves, meet back up when we’re all done, and walk back to the apartment together.”
“You can do whatever you want, but you’re not coming with us!” she said, before turning and marching off to meet her friends.
As James watched, Hailey walked up to Zach’s side, and he threw an arm around her shoulder. Meanwhile, Batman seemed to have his hand in Zach’s back pocket, and Hailey kept stealing glances at Catwoman.
Wow, that would really show James not to make assumptions.
Leon didn’t say anything as they watched Hailey’s crew make their way over to the ticket booth. He didn’t make any move to follow them, to leave, or even to take his arm off James’ shoulder.
A cold breeze blew through the courtyard, and James found himself shrinking against Leon’s side because, yeah, okay, whatever, he was a bit cold and probably should have accepted Leon’s offer back at the apartment.
As James took a moment to inventory how cold he was, he noticed that he could actually feel almost every one of the hard muscles of Leon’s torso.
He was so solid, like someone James could fall against and not have to worry if he’d drop him.
His arm was also steady and warm around James' shoulders. Somehow, it felt like that warmth was spreading down James’ chest, heating him from the inside out.
For a second, James could pretend this was normal.
They’d just walked Leon’s neighbor to the haunted house, and now they were going to walk hand-in-hand, or maybe Leon would keep his arm around James, to the bar.
There, they’d sit too close together in a booth or pressed up against each other on barstools, and they’d try all the weird Halloween-themed drinks.
Leon would grumble about it, but secretly, he’d be having a good time.
At some point in the night, James would laugh at something funny, and he’d tip against Leon’s side.
He’d rest his head on Leon’s shoulder, and they’d slowly turn their faces to each other, and Leon’s lips would be right there?—
“James,” Leon rumbled, and James had to check himself to make sure he wasn’t actually tipping his head against Leon’s shoulder.
“Yeah?” he said, once he was sure his voice would come out steady.
“How would you feel about a change of plans?”
James permitted himself one more second to bask in his fantasy. He leaned a little more of his weight against Leon’s side as he said, “I don’t typically do well with scary things, but if this is what you need to do, I’ll do it.”
Leon took a slow, deep breath, and as he let it out, James could have sworn he pulled James even tighter against him. “I don’t feel right that her mom thinks I was walking her to the community center, and now she has to find a way home from a haunted house.”
“Yeah, I get it,” James said, and he really did.
Leon had made it very clear during their conflict mediation session that one of the most important things to him was having integrity.
Of course, he wouldn’t want to let Hailey’s mom down by supposedly not sticking to his word, even though he wasn’t actually the one to give his word.
James looked up at the haunted house, at the blood-soaked rolls of gauze hanging out of the upstairs window and the chains dangling from the shutters.
There were enough fake spiderwebs to cover James’ entire house, and the bones lining the staircase leading up to the front door looked a lot more realistic than the styrofoam skeleton sitting in front of his front door at home.
He blamed his mom for this.
Leon squeezed his shoulder. “I have more of that pumpkin beer at home. After the haunted house, we could grab candy on the way back, snuggle with Yarmen, and watch that Halloween baking show you mentioned last night?”
God, talk about James’ perfect date night. If only it didn’t have to come with a trip through a haunted house.
If only it was an actual date.
James patted Leon on the back. “I already said I’d do it. You don’t need to bribe me.”
“Think of it more as rewarding.”
James stepped forward and out of Leon’s hold and his warmth before turning to give him the most shit-eating grin he could manage. “Thanks, Daddy.”
James wasn’t afraid of Leon. He just so happened to decide that he wanted to speed walk to the ticket booth, for no particular reason whatsoever.
Leon caught up with him a few moments later in line and planted a solid hand on his shoulder. He squeezed once, almost painfully, before dropping his hand.