Raiden:Miss you already. Can you sneak over before the party? I have something I want to show you.
My smile is wide, my cheeks hurting with the muscles being strained.
“Is that Liam? Will you ask him topleasenot forget the ice? I don’t have enough in the freezer and most of our pops are sitting in the garage because I didn’t have enough room in the fridge.”
My smile drops as quickly as it came, being caught smiling at someone’s text is already humbling but my mom catching me and asking if it’s my boyfriend has me freezing in panic.
“Yeah mom, I’ll ask him,” my chuckle is strained and she looks at me weird but still hands me the statue.
“Thank you honey, don’t forget Sophie and Damon are coming over tonight so make sure everyone is on their best behavior. We don’t want to scare them off.”
“I already told the guys, and Raiden will be here too so they’ll have plenty of catching up to do. It’ll be fine, mom.” She doesn’t look convinced as she follows me out to supervise me as I put her statue where she wants it.
“I’m glad you and Raiden are hanging out again, you two used to be thick as thieves. I always felt bad after what happened.” The hammer I'm using to force in the stakes misses the stake and instead smashes my hand.
“Fffuck. Ow.” I shake my hand to get rid of the pain but I can see the blood from where I split the skin and my nail splinters.
“Oh shit! Daniel, grab the first aid kit!” My mom screams at my dad while trying to step closer to me. I’m cradling my hand against my chest, my pulse pounding in the tip of my finger.
Fuck my life.
“I’m fine, mom. Let me wash it off and I’ll wrap it up. No use in stressing dad out,” I say a moment too late because my dad runs out of the house, partially dressed in his halloween costume waving around the small first aid kit he keeps in the garage.
He looks ridiculous. My mom decided for Halloween they were going to dress up as Hugh Hefner and a Playboy Bunny. My father is the playboy bunny. His tail is currently trailing behind him, barely hanging on for dear life to the spandex he has on around his knees. For fuck’s sake. At least he has on a pair of shorts and a cutoff shirt or he would have to worry about indecent exposure.
“Everything okay? What happened?” He doesn’t look at me, or my blood covered hand. Nope. He immediately drops down to his haunches in front of my mom, cracking open the case while he asks her what she needs.
“It’s for Jericho, he smashed his finger with the hammer.” When my dad finally realizes I’m standing here, with blood seeping between the cracks of my fingers, his smile is impish.
“My bad, Jericho, I thought your mom was hurt.”
“I can tell,” I deadpan. He finally has the good grace to hand me an alcohol wipe to clean the wound and a sterile bandage to cover it. It’ll hurt like a bitch tomorrow, but I’ll worry about that when it comes. At least it’s not my right hand, because there’s plenty of things I do with it that I don’t need to be held back by a small injury.
“Oh my god!”
“What happened?”
“Is that blood?”
Three different people, all talking over each other as they come to my parent’s yard, already dressed for Halloween.
Ema is dressed as Tinkerbell, a cute green dress showing off her small waist and short frame. Rodney is dressed as Peter Pan, fake leather hat and all.
And Raiden… I swallow my tongue, staring at him and not being able to utter a single word. He’s stolen all the air out of my lungs, holding me as his prisoner as I take in the sight of him.
He’s gorgeous. He’s more than that.
My tiny dancer is dressed up as the male version of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. His tight, yellow spandex is molded to his body. Showing off every line and divot and leaving nothing to imagination. My eyes wander over him. He dyed his hair back dark after he spent the night, and the black locks are tucked behind his ear with a smattering of diamond crusted clips holding the rest of it back artfully. A pair of earrings dangle from his earlobes, the glint of silver against his flesh is begging me to leave my mark underneath them, use my teeth to create my own version of an accessory on him.
On his feet, showcasing his pink painted toes, are a pair ofyellow slippers. The bow is tied around his ankle, showing off the delicate arch of his feet. I never realized feet would do it for me, or maybe it’s just his. Everything about him turns me on. From the dark strands on his head to the tips of his toes, there’s not a thing about him that I’m not obsessed with.
“Jericho!” He’s the one who askedwhat happened.He rushes over to me, being careful to step in the grass so his shoes don’t sink. “Are you okay? Why are you bleeding?” Raiden grabs my hand from me and he flinches when he sees the blood already seeping through the bandaid. His fingers gently trace the veins across the back of my hand and it's a good thing I’m in pain or I would be popping a boner in front of our parents. And that’s something I can do without.
“Hit it with a hammer trying to put the stake in the ground, I’m fine,” I reassure him. I have to hold myself back from reaching out to soothe his cheek, lessen his worry for me.
“Let me see,” he pleads and I shake my head. I don’t want him to see the gory mess. It’ll be fine and he’ll be better off without seeing it.
“I’m okay, I promise, Raiden.” His eyes narrow on mine and I quirk my lip up, smiling at his obvious unamused glare.
