“It’s a student,” Nate easily guessed, shrugging when Bay glared. “What? You made it so obvious. But don’t worry. I don’t care who you’re with so long as you’re safe about it. I should be thanking them actually.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“So, what? You think liking someone helped reset your emotions?” Nate thought it over. “You haven’t had a crush in a long time and they do say love is the cure for everything.”
“I wouldn’t call it love,” Bay stuttered then cleared his throat. He took time to collect his glasses from the end table and put them on, stalling, then took a chance by admitting, “Obsession would be a more accurate definition.”
“On your side or theirs?”
Sila wasn’t obsessed with Bay, he was merely looking to get even. It shouldn’t bother him, considering he wasn’t at all the person Bay had believed him to be, and yet he found himself a little hurt by the notion that the younger man wasn’t actually interested in him. He wanted to make Bay suffer and clearly last night had been fun for him as well since he’d made the offer to do so again, but that didn’t mean he wanted Bay.
It didn’t mean he felt the same twisted yearning that Bay felt for him.
And how odd, that Bay even felt that at all. Even stranger still was the fact it was ten times brighter and hotter within him than it’d been before when he’d crushed on the boyish Sila Varun.
There was nothing boyish about the monster who’d cut the clothing from his body and stripped him bare last night.
Bay shivered thinking about it, unable to contain the reaction in time and Nate clicked his tongue knowingly.
“Oh, so that’s how it is.” Nate crossed his arms and propped a shoulder against the doorframe, much like Sila had done earlier.
“Should we go to the kitchen?” Bay asked suddenly. “I haven’t had coffee yet.”
Nate’s eyes went pointedly to the unmade bed. “Whathaveyou had this morning, Pandaveer?” When Bay scoffed at him, he lifted a hand to the side of his face and made a lewd motion.
Bay tossed a pillow at him—the single pillow he owned with the stained gray pillow case—and glared. “I forgot how annoying you could be.”
“I haven’t changed,” Nate argued, picking up the pillow when it hit his chest and dropped to the ground. He tossed it back on the bed. “If anything, I kicked it up a notch whenever I was around you, you just never reacted until now.”
“Really?” Bay hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah, really.” Nate laughed and then turned, heading down the small hallway to the main room which doubled as the kitchen and living area. Aside from that, one closet, and the bathroom, there weren’t any other rooms in the house.
Bay was halfway to him when he came to an abrupt halt.
If Sila had been standing in the doorway, that meant he’d come from the rest of the house. He’d cleaned Bay up and brought him water, but…What else had he gotten up to while Bay had been asleep?
“All good?” Nate called from the kitchen, the sound of the cupboards opening following quickly after.
“Yeah, do me a favor and get the coffee started,” Bay said.
“Sure.”
Bay ran his sweaty palms over his jean-clad thighs as he slowly walked toward the single door in the hallway. It led to the closet, which was where…He never had anyone over—even Nate and Berga rarely showed now since they saw him at the races—and he hadn’t cared enough about discovery before to rethink the location of his stash. Now however, the thought of Sila having seen it…He forced himself to grab the door handle and whip the thin wood open as fast as he could.
At first, he sighed when he saw the row of coats he kept hanging there seemingly untouched. It was a small barrier between what lay beyond, but he doubted Sila would have any reason to inspect a closet once discovering that’s all it was.
He glanced to the right, checking down the hall to be sure Nate wasn’t heading back for any reason. When it was clear he wasn’t, Bay shifted some of the hangers down the metal rod. Most things were digital now, but he still had a fondness for tangible things, probably because his grandmother had raised him on paper photographs of her adventures and physical textbooks filled with information and pictures that would always be there within reach.
His emotions had been cut off, but he’d still acted on instinct when it came to stuff like this, things he wanted to hold on to. That was why he’d mindlessly printed the photos, some he’d taken himself in secret on campus, others copied from Inspire.
He’d taped them at the back of the closet, a sick shrine of sorts for the student he could never have. The fact that it’d been gross and wrong had only made him want to do it more, since he’d been able to feel a small ember of emotion with each glossy image he’d placed.
Bay frowned when the first couple came into view, and then he gasped and shoved the rest of the coats out of the way so he could get a better look at the entire back of the closet.
Some of the photos had been torn down. There were empty patches where they’d once been, but it probably amounted to only seven of the three dozen or so Bay had collected. It was only then that he noticed the floor of the closet was littered with shreds of paper.
Sila had torn some of the photos down and then ripped them apart. But not all of them.
