I smile and focus on his sister. “Luna.”
She reluctantly extends her tongue. Red streaks run from the silver ball to the tip of her tongue, a little swollen. At least she bought an actual barbell. I leave the jewelry in place to avoid an infection closing inside the wound.
Luna leans slightly over the sink, and I use the syringe to wash near the piercing, places that just swishing wouldn’t reach. When I finish, she spits into the sink again.
“Done?” she asks.
“Not yet.” I dunk a cotton ball in saline solution. “Hold this against your tongue.” She looks ashen, and her forehead glistens with a sheen of sweat. While I stick an ear thermometer in her right ear, I go over shit that I know.
“No kissing or oral sex until the infection is clear.”
She nods, but her brother cuts in, “Have you been kissed before?” No one said Maximoff Hale isn’t just as blunt as me.
Luna says, “Uh-huh.”
“What?” His jaw lowers. “By who?”
She takes the cotton ball out of her mouth. “Guy at school. You don’t know him. He bought me a sandwich afterwards.” She starts laughing at Maximoff’s furrowed brows and hard confusion.
“You’re totally fucking with me.” He pauses. “Right?”
I can’t tell what’s real or fiction with Luna Hale anymore than he can.
Luna just laughs again, followed by a wince. She touches her mouth.
“Luna.” His edged voice deepens, more serious. “Why’d you even choose your tongue? You could’ve pierced your ear?—”
“I already have pierced ears.” She rubs her arm across her sweaty forehead. “I just like how tongue piercings look, and I thought it’d be easy to do myself.” She glances between us. “Anyway, I heard it doesn’t do much for pleasure.”
“It doesn’t do a lot,” Maximoff confirms, admitting to being sucked off by someone with a tongue piercing.
I look at him. “They have to be good at using the piercing for you to feel something.”
He licks his lips. “Experience or are you just bullshitting?”
“My last ex-boyfriend had a tongue piercing.” The thermometer beeps, filling a sudden dead silence. I take the thermometer out of her ear and read the temp:101 Fahrenheit.Shit.
“You have an ex?” Maximoff’s voice is tight.
I raise my brows at him and reach for my phone in my pocket. “Four exes. Long gone.” I scroll through my list of contacts.
Luna rests her elbows on the sink. “Moffy’s never dated anyone.” The world knows that he doesn’t publicly date, but I wasn’t sure if he’d found a way to date privately in the past.
“You’ve never dated anyone?” I ask, pausing on my phone.
“No.”
I can’t help but smile. “Your purity is showing.” I return to my phone.
“Pretty sure I’ve had more sex than you.”
Luna seems unsurprised that he’s had sex at all, and since he trusts his family, I’m sure he’s less guarded around them.
“That’s something neither of us knows for sure, wolf scout.” I find the contact in my phone. “And secondly, you don’t win a prize for fucking around. Just like I don’t win one for being in relationships. Thirdly, you’re stillpure.”
He groans.
I almost smile again, but I need to call someone that I’m not thrilled to call. Before Maximoff asks, I explain what I’m doing. “Luna needs antibiotics. I can give her over-the-counter medication to combat the fever, but to get rid of the infection, she’s going to need a prescription.”
