Clay
Walking into my room, I stopped short at the familiar shape on my bed and scowled. “What are you doing in here?”
Cade looked up and grinned. “Huntin’ you down.”
“It’s not hunting if you’re just going to come to my room and sit around,” I grumbled, closing the door behind me. “That’s ambushing.”
“I mean, that’s a kind of huntin’,” Cade shrugged, tossing a book to the side and sitting up on my bed. “Just a different kind is all.”
“And why are you hunting slash ambushing me?” I asked wearily. “You literally saw me this morning.”
“And you been acting weird,” Cade said, leaning forward to frown at me, “for like, a week. It’s been weird not hearin’ you all the time.”
“All the time,” I muttered as I grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it to Cade before grabbing one for myself. “ It’s okay if I’m quiet. You know that, right? I can be quiet.”
“No, you can’t,” he said with a snort as he cracked open the water and took a deep drink. “Not unless somethin’ is goin’ on, then you can be quiet.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about something being wrong with me based on how quiet I am,” I said, screwing up my face as I tried to decide if I should be offended.
“Well, it is,” he said, setting the bottle at his feet. “But I dunno why somethin’ might be wrong. Nothin’ happened, at least, nothin’ you told me or I saw. But you been real weird for days now, and I wanna know what’s up. Did ya have like...another moment?”
I grimaced at the reminder of my first time here.
There had been a guy who arrived in my third week who had a thing for going into people’s rooms when they were out and nosing around.
As far as anyone could figure out, he had never done anything except snoop, and since the system wasn’t designed to alert anyone other than the assigned guest, it took a while before people figured out what was happening.
It just so happened I was the one who figured it out, because the guy had been dumb enough to talk about things he had no business knowing.
Specifically, there was only one person who was aware of the picture frame tucked in the bottom of my sock drawer, which was Cade, but, at that time, Cade didn’t know.
And yet this man, whose name I couldn’t even remember because it hadn’t mattered, knew things he had no business knowing.
At the time, I thought someone like Reggie had read my file and said something around him.
Well, that was my thought after the rage had cleared when I heard that jackass talking about my past like it was juicy office gossip.
That was all it took for me to earn my first real mark against me, and he had earned several new marks on his body before I was pulled off.
That was my introduction to Cade because it had been him who pulled me out of the fight.
It had also been him who waited while Reggie and Mr. Shepherd talked to me in the office.
Cade had spent time with me while I was on lockdown, while the investigation had been ongoing.
The investigation found that I had started the fight, and that put me on their version of parole, but they found that the other guest had been going into not just my room, but any room that wasn’t intentionally locked.
After that, Reggie had made changes so entry and exit logs were available not just to the staff, but to the guests for their own rooms, and if there was someone in the room, there was an alert.
I had seen it when I’d come in today, but I had already known who was waiting for me.
“I didn’t fly off the handle and beat anyone’s ass,” I told him sourly. “You don’t have to assume the worst.”
“Alright,” he said easily. “Then what’s goin’ on?”
“Nothing, I just…” I sighed. “Alright, fine. Did you notice how that Isaac guy talked about what you and Luka would want from some company, and the sex stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you notice he only talked about the sex stuff about me?”
“Hmm, no.”
“Well, he did. And it was because,” I sat down at the table, “he didn’t want to say it in front of you and Luka.”
Cade’s brow rose slightly. “Really? Dang, that’s gotta be somethin’. Was it bad?”
“It wasn’t great,” I muttered, rubbing my face. “Not the easiest thing to argue against either...which makes it worse.”
Cade’s brow fell into a frown. “What did he say?”
“Nothing awful,” I said quickly, compelled to defend Isaac even though what we knew about each other couldn’t have filled a thimble. “Just not stuff you want to hear about yourself.”
“Okay...ya gonna tell me? I don’t really wanna guess; if I start guessin’, I’m probably gonna end up sayin’ somethin’ worse ’cause I know more about ya than he does.”
I laughed a little, running my hand through my hair.
“Just that...the reason he couldn’t come up with something for me was that.
..he says I hide everything real or meaningful about myself.
That I use all the horny stuff to keep people out, and there’s nothing about me that he can really figure out. ”
Cade stared at me for a few seconds, and it wasn’t until he scoffed that I realized he’d been waiting for more. “Uh...that it?”
“Isn’t it enough?” I asked in disbelief. “Jesus, Cade, didn’t you hear me?”
“I heard ya,” he chuckled. “But I ain’t quite sure what ya want me to say, Clay.
I basically had to bully my way into your life, so what’s anyone else gonna think?
You’ve got a reputation around here, and I know ya don’t care about it, but.
..I mean, yeah, it’s there for a reason.
It’s ’cause no one else knows much about you.
I’m sure ya could ask some of the guys, and they’d probably know what ya look like naked and some of ’em know how ya like your dick sucked, but they couldn’t tell ya what your favorite color was, what your momma’s name is, or what kinda books you read. ”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“You answer those questions.”
“Ya like history books, real and fake history. Your momma’s name is Catelyn; your daddy’s is Scott.”
“Color?”
“Err…blue?”
“Purple, close enough,” I said with a sigh, fiddling with my water bottle. “I mean, like I said, I can’t really argue with him, but it’s...I don’t know, it’s harder hearing it confirmed by you. Even if you don’t know my favorite color.”
“That’s a stupid thing to know about someone,” he muttered. “I never shoulda used it as an example.”
I smiled. “So, what do I do?”
“I mean, what can ya do? Maybe stop hidin’ shit from people,” Cade said with a shrug.
“Right, because you’re the picture of sharing everything that’s going on with you.”
“Don’t go turnin’ this around on me. We weren’t talkin’ about me; we were talkin’ about what’s going on with you. I know what I can be like, but you’re the one who’s havin’ a hard time dealin’ with how someone else saw ya, so that’s the problem right now.”
I huffed. “Fine, whatever. Still brings us back to square fucking one, doesn’t it?”
Cade stared at me for a moment before clicking his tongue and getting up. “Hold on a second.”
“What?” I asked in bewilderment as he went over to the pad by the door, tapped for a second, and then closed the window he’d been looking at. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll be right back,” he said and walked out, leaving me staring at his back in confusion before the door closed, leaving me alone with my bewilderment.
He was only gone about ten minutes, but I paced the entire time, trying to figure out what he was doing. I spun around when the door slid open, and before my lips could so much as part, I stopped when I saw he wasn’t alone.
“You,” I said. I could hear the odd tone in my voice and quickly repeated, in a far more confused voice, “You?”
Isaac blinked at me, his lips curling slightly before he turned to look at Cade with an expression I couldn’t see. “This was your emergency?”
“I didn’t say emergency,” Cade said, shrugging his broad shoulders. “I said it was important.”
“Hmmm,” Isaac hummed thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m retired. And while I don’t want to make assumptions about your personal funds, I’m not sure either of you could pay my original prices, even if I were to consider a discount...which I’m not.”
“Oh Christ,” I groaned. “Please, I don’t care that you were an escort, but c’mon, man, if you keep bringing it up, then you’re not allowed to call me out for being a horndog.”
“He’s kinda right,” Cade said in an almost apologetic tone. “It don’t matter to us what ya did before ya came here. You can be more than an escort.”
Isaac glanced between us with a thoughtful expression, then grunted. “I thought I was coming here to help Cade, and instead, I get a neat insight into myself, and a correction that I definitely needed. Life is a weird and wild thing, isn’t it?”
“Look,” Cade said, stepping forward, and, for the first time since I’d known him, his voice dropped so quietly I couldn’t hear what he said.
I was so shocked that he was even capable of whispering that my realization that I couldn’t understand what he said came too late.
Cade pulled back, giving Isaac a sheepish shrug as if to apologize for whatever he’d said.
“Wait, what the fuck was that?” I asked.
Isaac raised a brow before turning back to Cade. “I can’t promise anything.”
“Not askin’ ya to,” Cade said with a shrug. “Just don’t forget what I said.”
Isaac snorted. “Again, no promises.”
“Just try?”
“Fine.”
“Hello!” I called louder. “I asked what the fuck was that?”
“That was me needin’ to go see the Doc,” Cade said with a smile, going to the door. “I got an appointment with him today.”
“Now I know that’s a lie,” I called after him, but he was already heading out the door. “You never go to the doc, anymore than I do!”