Chapter 7
Felix stared into his wallet despairingly.
A quarter. That was all he had left to survive on until his parents sent him his weekly spending money. Unfortunately, he’d spent all of that on his secret house-training lessons, and it looked like next week would go the same way.
Which meant he couldn’t get the donut he’d been craving since he walked into the fair set up four blocks from campus. Unless, of course, Jacob took pity on him.
“Jacob,” Felix said, leaning on Jacob’s sturdy shoulder. “Old buddy. Old pal.”
“I’m not getting you a donut,” Jacob replied, his eyes fixed on the donut cart they were in line for.
Felix bit his tongue. He almost wanted to come out and admit why he was so broke—but he wasn’t house-trained yet.
He could only cook a few recipes, and he still didn’t have that cleaning instinct that Jacob and now David talked about—the ability to walk into a room and realize what needed tidying.
Apparently, it would come the more he cleaned.
If he showed Jacob his ‘skills’ now, Jacob would laugh at him. And Felix wouldn’t blame him.
“Okey-dokes,” Felix said, forcing his voice to stay chipper. “In that case, go ahead without me. I gotta see a man about a dog.” With that, he stepped out of the donut line.
“Hey,” Jacob called as Felix weaved through the irritating happy couples and the broke college students taking advantage of the free student day. “You’re not getting one? You said you were hungry! We’re almost at the front of the line!”
“I’m saving money,” Felix replied, ignoring his stomach growling. “I’m an adult.”
“Sure,” Jacob said skeptically. “I’m still not getting you one!”
Felix flipped him off and raised his voice over the growing crowd. “Come up with something exciting to do while I’m gone! We haven’t had any shenanigans yet.”
Jacob shouted something, but whatever it was got lost in the noise of the Ferris wheel screeching.
Felix glanced over to see the guy who ran it swearing, yanking at a rusty piece of machinery that didn’t look like it should be yanked.
Or operational, Felix considered as he watched the Ferris wheel jerk back into motion.
Despite the obvious death trap, Felix couldn’t help but be tempted.
If only he had the few dollars it cost to ride it, since the Ferris wheel wasn’t included in the free student day.
And if only Jacob hadn’t already refused to go on.
Felix gave the Ferris wheel one last longing look. Then he turned to find a quiet spot to make a phone call.
He wedged himself in between the porta-potties and a cotton candy cart, which somehow smelled even worse than the porta-potties, and dug out his phone.
David Stanton answered in two rings, the prompt bastard.
“Hello,” he said in that deep, gravelly voice that Felix refused to find sexy. “This is David Stanton.”
“Yeah man, I know. I called you.” Felix went to lean against the cotton candy cart, only stopping when he saw the grime all over the wall.
He might not be the cleanest guy ever, but he had some sense of self-preservation.
Especially around Jacob, who would make him go home and shower if he got covered in whatever the muck was.
“How can I help?” David asked.
“Uh, just booking in another cleaning lesson,” Felix said. “You said you prefer to call rather than text. My group project guys rescheduled, so I actually can do Thursday afternoon.”
“Oh, good,” David said mildly. “I’m pleased to hear from you. I was worried you would not want to return after our first session.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Felix argued. “We washed the chemicals out of your eye! No one got hurt!”
Felix had been expecting David to back out of their next lesson, despite David assuring him he wouldn’t.
David seemed genuinely happy to teach someone how to clean, even though Felix was by no means a promising student.
Felix got the feeling that the guy didn’t have many people to talk to.
But he also got the feeling that it didn’t bother David, so he didn’t know why David didn’t throw him out after their disastrous first session.
“It was a good lesson on the dangers of chemicals,” David said in a wry tone that almost sounded like a joke. “Thursday afternoon works well for me. How about four p.m.?”
“Four works great,” Felix said. “Are you seriously going to dirty up your kitchen for me? Sounds intense.”
“I won’t ‘dirty it up,’” David said. “I just won’t clean it for a week. It will be up to you to identify what needs to be done.”
Felix’s stomach grumbled again. He ignored it, gritting his teeth. Why the hell did he agree to this? He wasn’t just doing some random guy’s chores, he was paying the guy to let him.
“Awesome,” Felix said. “Can’t wait. See you Thursday.”
He hung up, already wondering what cleaning shit he would miss when he observed David’s kitchen.
A voice behind him said, “What’s on Thursday?”
Felix spun to face Jacob, who was munching on a plain paper-wrapped donut. “What? Nothing. Your mom.”
“Ha ha,” Jacob said, giving him a suspicious look as he sidled up next to him. “Seriously, who calls anymore? Was that the nurse? Were those test results?”
“I already told you I’m clean,” Felix said, and paused.
Jacob didn’t just have one donut. He had two. One plain, because Jacob had boring food tastes. And one dripping with powdered sugar. Even if Jacob developed a proper sweet tooth, he never ate messy food.
Felix gasped. “Jacob! Is this for me?”
“No,” Jacob said, already handing it over.
Felix took it, grinning. He couldn’t show Jacob how touched he was, obviously. But if he laid it on really thick, Jacob would think he was joking. He rocked sideways, jostling his shoulders.
“All for lil’ ol’ me,” he simpered, fluttering his eyelashes. “Next you’ll be buying me flowers!”
“Don’t count on it,” Jacob said, scratching his mouth to hide a smile.
Felix’s empty stomach filled with butterflies. For all Jacob pretended to be a logical pragmatist, he had such a soft side. It made Felix wonder how Jacob would be in a real relationship. He wouldn’t know. Jacob had never dated anybody.
Then again, neither had Felix. A fact that everyone forgot with Felix’s slutty nature. It always felt weird to accept a real date when he was so hung up on his best friend.
Felix took a bite of his donut, smearing icing sugar all over his mouth in an attempt to distract himself from his useless love. “Mmm. Not as good as your mom’s carrot cake, but pretty damn good.”
“You don’t even like carrot cake,” Jacob said. “That’s my favorite. Stop pretending to like my mom’s carrot cake ‘for the bit,’ she hates that.”
Felix ignored him and made a mental note to get Jack to teach him how to bake cakes. Carrot cake was kind of gross, but he was doing this whole thing to impress Jacob, hence: carrot cake.
“So, did you come up with something exciting for us to do next?” Felix asked, mouth full of donut. “Don’t say go-karts again. I think they’ll ban us if we get too close.”
Jacob laughed. “But we were so good at it!”
“Too good,” Felix agreed. “It had nothing to do with you threatening to get out of your kart to fight that middle schooler.”
“I was joking,” Jacob said quickly. “I wouldn't have done it.”
“I know,” Felix lied. He took another bite of donut, trying not to be too delighted by the gift. It didn’t mean anything. They were best friends, of course Jacob would do this stuff for him sometimes.
Jacob stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I actually did get us tickets. To something… I don’t know if it’s exciting. But it’s definitely outside my comfort zone, so.”
“Yeah?” Felix said, garbled around the donut. “Holy shit! What?”
He made grabby hands for Jacob’s pockets. Jacob elbowed him away and pulled out two tickets, holding them out for Felix to see.
“General admission to…” Felix’s eyes widened when he saw the cutesy logo that varied from ride to ride. “The Ferris wheel? Jacob! You hate the Ferris wheel!”
“I know.”
“Even if you didn’t hate heights, that thing is one hundred percent a death trap—”
“I know,” Jacob repeated, his tone sharpening as he stared behind Felix at the Ferris wheel. “If we go down, I’m making you break my fall.”
“All I’m hearing is that you’ll be on top of me,” Felix declared. He turned toward the Ferris wheel, his donut aloft in a fist-pump. “Let’s ride this baby!”
Five minutes later, Felix was decidedly less enthused.
He wasn’t a stickler for rules. Far from it. But some rules should probably be obeyed—like public safety laws.
“I think the rust is actually helping,” Felix lied, poking at the decaying metal that doubled as the seat barrier. “It’s holding it all together, man.”
Jacob said nothing. He was white-knuckling the seat barrier, staring at the aforementioned rust colonizing the metal. Someone had tried painting over it, but the paint had chipped away to reveal the orange underneath.
“Unclench,” Felix told him. “This is just the next step in a brand-new Jacob.”
“This is the next step in our horrible death,” Jacob replied. “My parents will sue.”
Felix sighed. Jacob’s parents needed to get a fucking grip. It was entirely their fault Jacob made himself miserable over this crap in the first place. Felix loved Jacob, but it was exhausting watching him worry about everything.
Although, Felix considered as he scratched a shard of rust off the screw that held the seat together, this was probably worth the worry. Not that he was going to tell Jacob that.
“We’ll be fine,” Felix said, slinging an arm over Jacob’s shoulder and jostling him. “Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
The Ferris wheel jerked into motion.
“Shit,” Jacob whispered.
“We’ll be fine,” Felix repeated.
Something creaked worryingly from the support struts. Jacob glared at Felix accusingly, as if it was all his fault.
Felix grinned, ignoring the worry in his gut. “All part of the experience!”