“What I saw yesterday, I don’t think Teddy would hurt a fly. He’s literally so nice. I always pick up on bad vibes, and I felt no bad vibes at all yesterday,” He tells me, smiling. Yesterdaywasreally good to be honest. I feel like I’ve found my people. DrSatin doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s never met them before. He doesn’t know what they’re like. I don’t think I need to worry, right?
“In other news… I saw you getting on with Eli yesterday,” I say with a grin. They were very talkative yesterday, I was pleased to see it. Kai deserves someone like Elijah, even if it’s just as friends.
“It’s nice talking to another trans guy. I haven’t met very many,” he admits, his smile wide. In a small town, it’s rare to see another gay person, never mind another trans person. But to be honest, I think this town is actually pretty queer. There’s a lot of people who come to our Queer Bookshop, so there must be a lot of queer people that live here.
“Elijah’s lovely, and really funny,” I add. Kai smiles and looks away.
“You have a crush on him, don’t you?” I tease. His face goes red as he looks away again.
“Shut up, I literally don’t Noah,” he says back, ignoring me. I know that face though. He definitely has a crush on him. I wasn’t going to say anything but I couldn’t help myself.
“I saw you two yesterday, you looked like you were having fun,” I continue, laughing.
“Yeah, in a fun bro way.”
“A fun bro way?” I repeat with a chuckle. He simply nods at me, before smiling again.
“Okay, I might have a small crush. But you can’t tell him, I don’t want him to know yet.” I take my phone out.
“Oh wait, you said not to tell him? I just texted him.”
“WHAT?” He shouts before lunging towards me and grabbing the phone. He looks at my phone and it’s just blank screen. He throws my phone onto the couch.
“Oh ha ha, very funny,” He says while I die from laughter.
We spend the rest of the night talking about our new found feelings and how much we like the new friends we’ve made. Things are going well for us. I told him about kissing Teddy, and how we almost had sex. We smiled till our faces hurt.
I don’t think I ever want to lose Kai again. I should never have ran away. I regret that now. It’s good to be back in Perrancombe.
I’m on my way to work, when I notice something horrifying on the front window of the bookshop. Three dead rats hang from their tails on the doorway, their eyes gouged out. They slowly drip blood onto the concrete pavement. On the right window, a bloody message reading, DON’T, resides. It’s a horrific sight, and makes me want to throw up. The smell is pungent, making me retch.
“Oh my god, what the fuck is this?” I ask Teddy, his arms are folded, and he’s standing a little away from me. There’s a bucket of soapy water and a sponge next to him.
“I don’t know,” He tells me, his face seething. I stand close to him, and place my hands into his. He relaxes a little.
“Did you see who did it?” I ask, looking at him now. I can’t tell if the message is for me or Teddy. My heart sinks.
“No, they must have done it late last night while we were asleep,” he explains with a sigh. I curse under my breath before Teddy picks up a wet sponge and launches it towards the window. It hits the glass with a loud, wet bang before landing on the floor.
“Calm down, Teddy, it’s not?—”
“Calm down? Someone is purposely trying to ruin business for me. I’m going to lose everything. I built this place from the ground up andsomeoneis trying to see it crumble to the ground.”
“You’re not going to lose anything,” I say, trying to comfort him but he shrugs me off.
We clean up in silence.
Work was slow today,for obvious reasons. A lot of people saw the display, or at least the dried blood on the concrete we can’t get out. I’m in my head the entire day. Sometimes my head just gets really busy and I can’t think properly. It’s like a weight on me that never seems to lift.
“Hey, you okay?” Teddy asks, popping his head in the doorway of the office. I’m trying my best to sort through a box of books, but my mind is racing. Teddy has a smile on his face, but it drops when he sees me. I don’t like it when he worries about me. When did we get close enough for that to happen?
I hate it.
I hate it.
I hate it.
“Yeah I’m fine,” I say, trying my best to smile. Teddy sees right through me.
