38. Seth
Seth
“Woah!” Iggy’s eyes are huge, staring at me over the counter. “What the hell happened to you?”
Yeah, that was my first thought too when I clocked myself in the mirror this morning. My neck’s covered in hickeys and faint bite marks.
I love it.
“Had a little late-night run-in with an animal last night,” I say, shooting her a wink.
“Holy hell!” she laughs. “It looks like he marked you, or something. Damn, boy!”
I pull the neck of my sweater up a little—it’s not like I own a fucking turtleneck, so I did what I could with what I had. Which was nothing.
“I’ll go see if I’ve got some concealer in my bag,” she says, turning around, but then she turns back again, leaning over the counter. “Was it good?”
I lean in closer to her, shooting her a smug smile. “What do you think?”
She grins, rolling her eyes. “Ugh! I’m so jealous.”
She turns around, and walks out the backdoor at the same time as Kaden and Jude walk up to the counter.
“Hey!” Jude grins. Then his eyes travel down to my neck and stays there, and his smile falter with each second.
“Sup?” I bite my lip, glancing at Kaden, who’s apparently very busy digging around in a box of ointments.
I fidget with the neck of my sweater, but it won’t go any higher unless I want to throw the hood on and pull the drawstrings until there’s nothing more than my nose sticking out. On second thought…
“So, ointment, and this is on me,” Kaden says, handing Jude a bottle of soap we usually don’t give out for free at all.
“Thanks! Appreciate it,” Jude says, finally taking his eyes off my neck.
“No worries, man. Take care!”
The door shuts behind Jude, and I turn to Kaden.
“What the fuck, dude?” I whisper, glancing around. “What the hell is this?” I point at my neck.
He presses his lips together, frowning a little, but it looks like he’s holding back a laugh, that asshole.
“Kade!”
“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “Fuck! That looks insane!” He takes a step forward, staring at my neck while biting his bottom lip. He reaches a hand out towards me but then the back door opens, and he clears his throat and takes a step back as Iggy walks in, wiggling a concealer at me.
“Found it! I’m not sure it’s your tone but anything’ll be better than that,” she says, nodding at me. “Have you seen it?” She turns to Kaden.
“Yeah, I saw it,” he says, scratching behind his ear.
“Where did you find this guy?” she chuckles, applying the concealer on my neck. I stare at Kaden, he’s biting his bottom lip, arms crossed.
“Grindr,” I mumble.
“You’re being careful, though, right?” Iggy says, glancing up at me. “I mean, there’re a lot of creeps out there.”
“Yeah, I’m careful,” I say, still looking at Kaden. “He’s harmless.” I add, like the lie it is. Because Kaden’s not harmless, not to my heart.
She nods, screwing the lid back on.
“And if not, I can definitely take him,” I grin. Kaden snorts and throws a hand up, covering his mouth. Then he clears his throat.
“You sure about that, man? I mean, why let someone do that if you so easily can take him? Looks like he had the upper hand.”
“Oh,” I huff a laugh. “Believe me, if anyone had the upper hand, it wasn’t him.”
“You sure about that?” he says again, narrowing his eyes at me.
“Babe,” I say, tilting my head. “I had him begging for me.”
Kaden bites his cheek, slowly nodding before he mouths, “touché”.