I cross the space between us, erasing my board and write,Time is relative.
“Yeah,” he agrees and nods robotically.
I write more as he watches me.
Singular.
He stares at the word for a moment before peering up to meet my gaze, huffing out a small breath.
“You’re like a reincarnated Edgar Allen Poe.” I squint, confused at his statement. “ He was a master of words, known to speak with very little volume, intentionally low, so people were compelled to listen,” he smiles at me, “and I’m very compelled to listen to you, Poe.”
My cheeks flush at the nickname and my stomach backflips to my heart. Other than Ethan no one has ever really listened to me since the accident. But Dane, he’s present paying attention to every tick, expression and written word,hearingme fully.
He sucks in a deep breath, looking at the door again. “I think your boyfriend is probably plotting my death,” he says with a light chuckle but I know this is one of the times he’s saying something as a playful joke but half-heartedly means it.
I point back at the first line on my board and he nods again, still smiling. “Ah, yes, thank you Mr. Miyagi.”
Shoving his arm, I smile and he laughs. It seems as if a weight has been lifted off him. I don’t know if it’s from him telling me about Celeste or from the release of all the sexualtension but this softer side of Dane makes me even more confident in our decision of opening up to him the way we did. Even if Ethan will take longer to accept it.
Standing, I glance back at the door and see a shadow shift on the ground from the small crack and fight myself to hold back from stomping over there, ripping the door open, and forcing him to sit next to Dane and give themselves the post-orgasm attention they need, but, I take my own advice—giving him time, and climb up the ladder to the top bunk.
“Goodnight Hannah,” Dane says as he crawls under his blanket and switches off the lamp.
I just hope that Ethan gets out of his own head before he misses out on the fun we could be having for the last two days of our trip.
19
ETHAN
Ilinger outside the door of our room for at least another thirty minutes before slowly creeping it open.
I know I’m a total idiot for waiting that long, especially because Hannah probably saw me out here before she went to bed, but I couldn’t face them. I have no reason to feel that way. Hannah has done nothing but support me, and Dane…well Dane has been annoyingly perfect.
In fact, everything he does is perfect. He’s so similar to Hannah, I find myself jealous of how light hearted everything is around him, when all I seem to cause is more stress.
And his fucking mouth. My cock stirs back to life at the thought and there’s no way that thing should have any functionality after the orgasm they gave me.
Seeing her fall apart as he fingered her while he was on his knees taking the full length of my cock down his throat. I’ll never forget it. I’ve still scolded myself since the moment I stepped out of the room but I needed to get away because his admission that he was the one on the other side of the glory hole was too much.
I’ve had passing thoughts of the stranger behind the wall,but now knowing it’s someone that I’ve grown to like as well. My emotional well-being couldn’t handle that information.
I tip-toe past the bean bag chairs and kick my shoes off next to my bed. Sliding under the top cover, I freeze when I hear Dane’s voice.
“Hey,” he says with an ease I’m jealous of.
I roll over knowing I can’t avoid him. “Hey.”
There’s a long pause, as if he’s choosing his next words wisely. I can only see the outline of his face in the dark, so his thoughts and facial expression are a complete mystery. He’s propped up on his elbow, his hand resting on the side of his face, like he was waiting for me the entire time and had no plans of sleeping until I came back.
“There’s a theme park nearby. I have tickets to it. Want to go tomorrow?” His tone is soft, vulnerable.
This surprises me. That was the last thing I expected him to say. But, being a natural deflector of my bicurious status in the given moment, I’m all for this conversation.
“Hell yeah, that sounds like fun.” There’s an excitement to my tone that surprises even me, and even through the dark space between us I can see Dane grinning and something warm in my chest radiates through my body at the thought that I made him happy.
Dane’s laugh travels through the hallway of the empty hostel yet again as if it’s a reenactment of last night. Except this time we’re not drunk. We had a couple of beers throughout the day at the theme park—which was by far the most fun I’ve ever had at one—but we’re nowhere near as intoxicated as we were last night.
Hannah tosses the large stuffed animal in Dane’s face then takes just a couple of strides in the direction of the door beforehe catches up to her and tosses her over his shoulder. They’ve been playful like this all day long. I shake my head and smile as I cut in front of them, using my card to open the door and let him walk through with her still draped over his body.
