“That’s not what I meant.”
“Are you being deliberately obtuse? Do you really think now is the time?”
“Landon.”
“Just, stop.”
Gregory sighed.
Landon moved and kicked him again, acting more petulant than Gregory had ever seen. He grabbed Landon’s foot and yanked, pulling their bodies together and wrestling Landon to the floor between his knees.
Landon resisted him, but Gregory didn’t relent, strong-arming Landon into a place of physical submission, then pinching his face between his hands to still him. If Landon was mad enough, he’d safeword and he hadn’t yet, so Gregory did what he knew best. He held Landon’s face until he settled, then used his foot to shove Landon’s body prostrate to the floor.
“Settle,” Gregory ordered him.
Landon’s face was pressed into the floor and he heaved his shoulders against Gregory’s foot before quieting with an unhappy grunt. Gregory straddled him, fisting the back of Landon’s hair roughly and tugging his face out of the carpet. Gregory leaned down, his voice presumably harsh in Landon’s ear.
“It was yours.”
He exhaled into Landon’s ear and recognized the full body tremor that coursed through Landon’s body.
“That collar belonged to an eighteen year-old who never got to see it. The ring, for the same stupid fucking boy.” Gregory shoved Landon’s face down and backed off of him, leaning against the wall with his arms resting on his knees. “I got them for you. I was going to give you the collar after we got to school, the ring…who knew. And then we didn’t go to school, and everything went to shit. I should have gotten rid of them, but I never could.”
Landon rolled over and rose to his knees. He crawled across the floor and hovered a few inches over Gregory.
“I don’t believe you,” he spat.
Gregory sighed.
“I don’t know how to make you believe me, then,” he said with a shrug.
“I was stupid to believe the shit you said to me.”
Rage painted violent streaks across Landon’s skin, his eyes near black with their bitterness. Gregory hated this.
“Landon.”
“Landon,” Verity appeared in the doorway looking fraught and clutching a phone to their chest.
“Not now,” Landon snapped, his eyes locking onto Verity in the doorway.
“It’s important. Jack’s in the hospital.”
“What?” Landon asked, unfolding himself from the floor and meeting Verity in the doorway.
Gregory watched the way they moved together, like seasoned lovers who knew the ins and outs of the other’s moods with a level of intimacy that was obviously escaping Gregory at the moment. Verity looked over Landon’s shoulder and found Gregory on the floor; their eyes were damp and red-rimmed.
There was a noise in the hallway and Gregory recognized the top of Aaron’s head appear over Verity’s shoulder, their cheeks resting beside each other. Verity turned and buried their face in Aaron’s chest.
“Hello?” Landon said into the phone.
His face was scrunched together with worry, his eyes still red from his argument with Gregory. Landon’s features morphed to shock and confusion, then complete and overwhelming fear.
“When?” he asked.
Aaron stroked his palm over the silk of Verity’s robe and whispered into their ear. Gregory wanted to console Landon that way for whatever was happening, but he feared approaching him right now would only make things worse, so he stayed on the floor.
“Yeah, of course. I’ll be on the first flight I can catch. Thank you.” Landon ended the call and handed the phone back to Verity, who turned from Aaron’s arms and enveloped him with a sob.
