Chapter 20 #2
“Sadie’s picking the perfect song.” Honey waved dismissively at Sadie, who was crouched over the TV, flipping through songs.
“You got exiled over there for bad behavior,” Sadie called, over the generic background pop music.
Honey grumbled under her breath. She looked even prettier than usual in the dim lights. Like a jazz singer from the eighties, all glamorous and debauched.
“I like your eyeliner,” Alexander said before he could think better of it.
“Thanks,” Honey said, her smile bright and almost free of mockery in a way that made Alexander drop his guard. She rummaged in her handbag and emerged with a black eyeliner stick, which she wiggled in front of his face. “Want to try? You’d look so hot.”
Alexander started to say no. It felt too much like how Honey was on their first road trip, trying to make him like her for her own purposes.
But then he remembered the genuine happiness in her eyes when she recognized him at her house.
More importantly, he remembered Tobias’s thumb on his neck as he told Alexander he was proud of him.
“Just a little bit,” he said.
Honey uncapped the eyeliner and moved closer. She grabbed his chin, twisting it while she watched his eyes.
“I usually use a knife,” she said. “Something to trace along.”
Alexander pulled out his jawbone knife and flipped it open.
Honey beamed. “There we go!”
“Be careful with it,” he warned her.
She rolled her eyes. “Hand on my heart and hope to die. Gimme.”
He handed it over. She took it unceremoniously, pressing the blade flat on the fragile skin beside his eye. It put the jawbone hilt right in his vision. He had never looked at the teeth so closely. The glue holding the teeth in their sockets was peeling. He needed to file that down.
“Eyes closed,” Honey told him.
Alexander’s instincts reminded him that he was being willfully naive.
That he was falling for their nerfarious plan again.
That he was older now, and wiser, and didn’t need these girls to approve of him.
But he was tipsy and he wanted to believe he could have one ill-advised night drunkenly singing karaoke with people who, for all intents and purposes, actually liked him.
He closed his eyes.
Honey hummed along to the pop song as she traced the eyeliner carefully along his eyelids. She was a good singer, even if much of her road-trip singing included more yelling than singing. Her touch was effective and gentle, and Alexander felt himself relax within her grip.
“I’m glad I killed him,” she said suddenly.
Alexander’s eyes flew open. Honey cursed, licking her finger and wiping at his forehead.
“Ugh, you made me smudge! Eyes closed, little Alex.”
Alexander pushed her hand away. “You mean Elijah?”
“I avoided the subject when we were road-tripping the first time, with the whole ‘trying to make you like me so you wouldn’t kill us’ thing. I know Elijah was your cousin and all. But holy shit, I’m so glad he’s dead.”
Alexander grabbed his knife back, feeling oddly dejected. Why couldn’t Honey just keep doing his eyeliner? He was having a good time. Now he had to get all…hunter about it. He didn’t want to. He wanted to have a nice time at the karaoke they’d talked him into.
“Careful,” he warned, sliding the jawbone knife into his pocket. “You sound a lot like your former self.”
“Oooh, my evil former self!” Honey laughed, capping the eyeliner. “Because monsters don’t have souls! God, that was so wild you said that. I still think about it all the time. What, did I suddenly get it back when I turned human again? Is that how it works?”
“Hon,” Sadie called from the TV.
“One sec, sweetie, I’m picking apart Alex’s guiding morals!” Honey winked at her then turned back to him, her face suddenly less playful than the wink would suggest. “Call me crazy, but it sure feels like my girlfriend has a soul. Feels like your guy’s got one, too.”
“Not my guy,” Alexander mumbled.
The door opened. Tobias sauntered in with a beer and a grin, looking more handsome and relaxed and human than Alexander ever had.
“Hey,” Tobias said. “You’re wearing eyeliner! You look great.”
Honey leaned in and whispered, “What a soulless monster.”
Alexander pushed her away. His family’s warning echoed in his head: Their souls are dust. Their souls are dust. But for some reason he felt oddly embarrassed by it, and couldn’t understand why.
Honey moved with his shove and stood. “Sadie! Back to Britney? I told you she was the obvious choice ages ago!”
Tobias sat down heavily in the spot she had left. “Britney’s a good choice. They might win after all.”
He slid his arm around Alexander’s shoulder. Alexander wanted so badly to lean into it. Wanted Tobias to twist his chin and kiss him. He wanted—
He cut off the next thought and stood, placing his half-drunk beer on the table.
“Whoa, hey,” Tobias said. “Where are you going?”
“Bed,” Alexander replied. “Goodnight.”
“What happened to your competitive streak?” Tobias called after him.
Alexander ignored him, striding into the hall.
He wiped at his eyes, scowling when his hands came back smudged with black.
He looked like an idiot. He never should have let her close.
This always happened, he got betrayed or he made a fool of himself, or both.
For some reason this felt like more of the latter than the former, though it really was her fault for bringing up how she’d killed his cousin.
So why did it feel like he had ruined everything tonight?
He walked out the back door of the karaoke place. Before it could close, a tanned hand slapped into it and held it open.
“Hey,” said Tobias. “You good? Did something happen when I was gone?”
“Nothing happened,” Alexander assured him. He wiped at his eyes again, cursing as he felt it smear further. “Shit. How do I get this off?”
Tobias caught his hands. Alexander resisted, expecting to be told he was making a big deal out of nothing or that he needed to lighten up. But Tobias was looking at him with those half-lidded eyes that made Alexander’s cock jump in his thrift-store boxers.
Alexander swallowed. “What?”
“Nothing.” Tobias stroked his wrists, making Alexander shiver. “You look hot.”
“I look like a raccoon,” Alexander argued.
Tobias shook his head. “Trust me: you look hot. But you’d look even better with that running down your face.”
Alexander frowned, confused. Was this a taunt? If it was, it was confusing. He was about to ask when Tobias stepped closer, placing his thumb on Alexander’s cheek.
“You know,” Tobias continued, voice low. “Sweat. Maybe some good tears. Would you like that, babe?”
Alexander knew he should step back. Tell him to not even look at Alexander’s single bed in the twin motel room waiting for them. He’d entertained this fantasy long enough. It was time to return to the real world.
But not yet.
“I could be persuaded,” he said slowly.
Tobias made a noise that should’ve had Alexander reaching for his knife. Appallingly, it only made him hard.
“Come on,” Tobias said. “Let’s get that stuff all over the sheets.”