Chapter 4 #2
“Huh! Well, let’s say you have a good buddy.
Like the best buddy in the world. And you, like, do everything together.
Or say you have a gym bro, right? He’s your partner.
Your man. Your rock. But these guys are perfect as they are, right?
Like strawberries. You admire them, but they don’t make your mouth water like a burger, for example.
But say you meet a man one day, and instead of a man, you see a giant ice cream that you want to lick all over.
And that ice cream makes your dick hard, man, like harder than it has ever been.
If your dick gets hard when you see that man, the chances are you are gay. ”
“It’s a definite sign, huh?” I said, sighing in defeat.
“I mean, it could be,” Miguel mused. “But we’re talking in absolutes here, cabrón. Everyone’s different.”
By lunchtime, I was exhausted, my hands hurt, and I would rather starve than eat a potato in my life.
I returned to the cell, but Adam wasn’t there, which immediately put me on high alert.
The thought of something happening to him filled me with dread.
What if someone was onto us? Why did we agree to come here?
How could Chief Bibb do this to us? Those similar questions plagued me, so no wonder I left my sandwich uneaten.
After lunch, they sent me back to the kitchen, but Adam never showed up.
By dinnertime, I was ready to crack. It was when I approached the guard, who welcomed me with a hand on his baton.
“Excuse me, sir,” I mumbled, clearing my throat. “Do you perhaps know where my cellmate is? He wasn’t in our cell for lunch and—”
“Do I look like a babysitter to you?” Guard Asshole asked me, chewing his gum.
“No, sir, but—”
“This is a prison inmate, not a promenade. You’re here to serve a sentence, not to date. Go back to work and don’t make me repeat myself.”
I did what Guard Asshole told me because what else could I do?
Minutes turned into hours as I kept glancing at the clock, because time didn't pass as it normally would.
When I finally returned to the cell and found it empty, I felt physically ill.
I sat on the bunk and buried my fingers in my hair, needing the pain so I would stop thinking.
“What’s up, weirdo?”
I looked up, wide-eyed, only to see Adam entering the cell, looking sweaty and tired.
“You fucking asshole!” I exclaimed, jumping to my feet.
When I pushed him into a wall, he looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“What the fuck?”
“Where the hell were you?” I growled, suppressing the need to strangle him.
“They sent me to some farm instead of the laundry,” he exclaimed, pushing me away. “I spent the entire day shoveling manure. What’s the matter with you?”
“I thought something happened to you!” I shouted. “You weren’t here for lunch, and they refused to tell me where you were and…”
I buried my face in my hands, hyperventilating.
“Shit,” Adam muttered, his voice softening. “Sorry, but I had no way of letting you know. Calm down.”
I could feel his hands on my head, massaging my temples.
“It’s stressful, I know,” he murmured. “We both have to get used to it. Just breathe. You look as if you’re about to have a panic attack.”
I drew a shaky breath, relaxing a little. Adam’s fingers on my temples were firm but gentle, instantly making me feel better. Hold up! Was he touching me? On purpose? I looked at him, but his expression was unreadable, apart from the amusement I could see in his pretty blue eyes.
“So, you missed me, huh?” he said, grinning.
“Not funny. I was scared shitless.”
Something like empathy crossed his face, which was impossible since the man had none.
When he cupped my face, I blinked, wondering if he lost his mind while shoveling that manure.
“Look,” he said, his expression serious. “I would never leave you here alone, alright? You annoy me most of the time, and things will go back to how they were after we leave this place, but while we’re here, I’ve got your back, okay?”
I nodded as his thumbs moved over my cheeks in a gentle caress. Was he even aware of it? He had to be.
“Did someone touch you?” he said, giving me a once-over. “Hurt you? Did something bad happen to you?”
I shook my head. “Actually, I met a nice guy who was explaining to me the prison dynamics and whatnot. He even mentioned Santiago, but—”
“If you’re done holding hands, inmates, it’s time for a shower.”
I looked at the guard wide-eyed, as if he said it in Klingon.
“Now that’s something you should be afraid of,” Adam said dryly.
Somehow, I forgot that showering with a bunch of naked, hostile inmates was a part of prison routine. I also never thought I could get an erection in a prison shower surrounded by murderers and thieves, but as it turned out, I was wrong. How did it come to pass?
I was fine at first. Well, not fine, but.
.. nervous. I stood there with naked gentlemen to my left and right, trying not to look at them, but in my peripheral vision, I could see bodies.
Big, small, thin, overweight, hairy, tattooed…
all kinds of bodies. In the far corner of the room, I was pretty sure two dudes were fucking next to the guard who looked bored.
None of it affected me, but it made me alert and mindful of the things happening behind my back.
Smuggling a knife while naked would be a feat, but not impossible.
It was only when Adam Markland stepped under the shower next to me that things got out of hand.
I kept my gaze on the wall, trying to look impassive, but I really, really wanted to look.
When a spray of water hit him, he ducked his head and closed his eyes.
And when he closed his eyes, I looked. I fucking looked at him, and it sealed my fate.
As he kept shifting beneath the stream of water, droplets raced down his skin, dragging my eyes with them.
When he reached for the soap and started lathering his chest, my mouth went dry.
His biceps bulged as his hand moved over his pecs, leaving a trace of soap bubbles on his chest hair.
After he washed his armpits and his hand slid down to his belly, I already had a semi.
He lathered his abs before moving below the waist, and it was when my semi grew into a full-blown erection.
The anaconda between his legs was flaccid, but the way it hung there, all heavy and thick, made my legs weak.
When he gripped his dick and tilted his head back, letting the water wash over him, a sound escaped my throat.
It was what finally made me come to my senses.
I looked away, struggling to breathe with all the steam filling my nostrils.
The edges of my vision blurred as I stared at the wall in front of me, but nothing helped.
I knew it was only a matter of time before the inmate next to me spotted my situation, or Adam, which was even worse.
I closed my eyes, willing my boner down while thinking about the most disgusting things.
Blood-splattered walls. Toilet filled with feces.
Human gums after getting infested with live larvae, which I actually saw in a documentary.
Eating fingernails and hair while watching the puppies play.
As it turned out, disgusting things weren’t cutting it.
“Hey,” Adam said in a low voice. “Turn toward me.”
Of course, he noticed. He probably didn’t realize he was the reason for my predicament; otherwise, he would already be in Timbuktu.
“Oi!” he said, touching my arm. “If you turn toward me, no one will see.”
I did what he said, feeling so hot in the face that I was sure my head would explode.
“Forget about it,” Adam said calmly. “Wash your hair.”
I reached for shampoo, wishing the ground would swallow me.
Some of the foam entered my eyes, blinding me, but that way at least I didn’t have to look at him.
I rubbed my eyes, waiting for the sting to pass, when I felt presence in my near vicinity.
I turned, still half-blind, flinching at the sight of a skinny, ghastly pale, naked guy behind me.
His eerily black, bloodshot eyes slid down to my dick, which deflated in record time.
“You’re new,” he said with a smirk that revealed two rotten teeth.
“Leave,” Adam told him without bothering to look at him.
“Pretty, too,” the dentist-hating dude added, never taking his eyes off me. “My boss likes them pretty.”
Adam’s hand reached out so quickly that I barely had time to process it before he slammed the guy against the wall.
I gasped, not because of what Adam did, but because I could see his back, and it was crisscrossed with vicious scars.
They ran from his shoulders to waist in all shapes and sizes, but they were all equally painful to look at.
Someone whipped the shit out of him once upon a time, and it made my stomach churn.
“He’s taken,” Adam hissed, gripping the dude’s neck tighter. “Look at him again, and I’ll tear you apart.”
The guy raised his hands in surrender, but his smirk turned sinister, telling me this was far from over. At the sound of footsteps, Adam released him as the guard approached us, reaching for his baton.
“Do we have a problem, inmates?”
The good news was that our shower adventure was over. The bad news followed after we returned to our cells.
“No dinner for you two.” The guard informed us before leaving. “Troublemakers get punished in this institution.”
And just like that, I regretted skipping lunch. And breakfast.
“Are they allowed to do that?” I grumbled as my stomach growled.
Adam shrugged. “They can do whatever they want. They have the worst of the worst here. Lifers. Death row inmates. A few cannibals, too, from what I’ve heard.”
“Peachy,” I said with a sigh. “Not only are we skipping dinner, but we might also become one.”
The entire day was a disaster. I made a fool out of myself, Adam almost strangled the creepy dude, and we both made that guard’s naughty list. Speaking of disasters, the image of Adam’s scarred back was imprinted on my mind.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it last night, but it was dark in the cell, and he never turned his back to me.
If those scars were as old as they looked, he got them when he was…
a teen, maybe? Who would do that to a child?
I slid out of my jumpsuit, glancing at Adam, who was brushing his teeth.
“What happened to your back?”
He froze on the spot. A few moments passed before he spat out the toothpaste and answered my question.
“This and that. Way back when.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course, he wouldn’t say anything.
“So, not that asexual, huh?” he countered, looking at me over my shoulder.
“Um… it was the adrenaline,” I mumbled, avoiding his eyes.
“Actually, adrenaline causes erectile dysfunction.”
“Why don’t you just fuck off?” I snapped, glaring at him. “I’m sick and tired of you harassing me. Leave me alone!”
I threw myself on the bed, fuming.
“I’m not harassing you,” Adam said calmly. “In fact, I helped you back there earlier.”
“I didn’t ask you to. What’s that guy’s deal, anyway?”
“I guess he likes your pretty face.”
“I don’t have a pretty face.”
“Yeah, you do.”
I propped myself on my elbows, looking at him in confusion.
“You think I’m pretty?”
“I’m sure you have a mirror somewhere at home, Jordan.”
When he reached for the mattress on the upper bunk and threw it on the floor, I flinched.
“What are you doing?” I said, wondering if he’d lost his mind.
“It’s a test,” Adam replied, lying down on the mattress. “Never mind me.”
How? He was so close to me that I could touch him if I wanted to, and I wanted to. And what kind of a test was it? As if he would tell me, even if I asked him.
A few moments passed before I spoke, feeling the need to explain a few things.
“I’m not gay, not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I said, staring at the ceiling. “I also have nothing against you straight folks, just to put it out there. I’m asexual, or I thought I was, but here and there… that happens.”
“A boner, you mean?” Adam said, sounding amused.
“Yeah, um… I can’t control it.”
“That’s how boners usually work,” he mocked me. “But as I said, don’t worry about it. No big deal. Pun intended.”
“You’re such an asshole,” I said with a sigh. “Can you promise me you will never mention it again?”
Adam burst into laughter. “Absolutely not.”
Like I said. Asshole.