“Yeah. I think he’s been using up all his annoying-ness on you lately, and now it’s leaking out onto the rest of us.”
Smirking, I tapped my dark nails on the steering wheel. “He needs enrichment. Did you try taking him on a walk?”
“Can’t I just freeze some peanut butter in one of those rubber dog bones and give it to him?” He griped, and I snorted.
“Can you do something for me?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you keep Ren at your house? If you do that, I’ll get Caelyx out of your hair for the whole night.”
“Oh, you guys want to fuck, huh?” He determined.
“Is it that obvious?”
I really, really wanted to fuck. Caelyx had been sending me perverted texts all day, with intermittent reminders that I’d forbidden him fromrelieving himselfand how when I finally got around to playing with him, he’d probably explode like a fire hydrant. Even though it had only been 2 days since we’d fooled around, I kind of believed him.
“Well, I don’t know what else you’d want to cram up in that tiny dorm room with him for,” he remarked, and I laughed.
“Just keep Ren with you if he doesn’t want a repeat of the guts rearranging debacle.”
Maddox laughed and promised he would.
“Oh, and tell Caelyx he can wait for me in my room,” I added. “I’ll be home in an hour.”
CAELYX
“AREN’T YOU AFRAIDof getting rabies?” I wondered, watching the plump seagull devour the little pre-cut chunks of salmon Che had prepared and carried out in a little plastic bag.
Che gave me a strange look, tilting his head. “From Eugene?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, what if he accidentally bites you when he takes the food out of your hand?”
“Only mammals can contract or transmit rabies,” he informed me softly, while suppressing a grin, probably at my ignorance. Well, he was the wildlife biology major, so I guess he’d know.
Eugene the seagull eyed me with disdain before letting out a single, indignant squawk, like I’d offended him with my assumption.
It was a cold, gray and dreary day, with dark clouds that threatened to pour down freezing rain any moment, so the central quad on BBU’s campus was mostly empty. Che and I sat on one side of the table, while Arie painted Kelani’s long nails on the other. She was Cyprian’s twin sister, and in the same cosmetology program as Arie. From what I understood, the major was business management related, but there was a concentration in esthetic, hair, and makeup courses, too. I hadn’t had many conversations with her, but I knew she was friends with Aspen.
Once the salmon chunks were devoured, Che pulled the lid off a plastic cup he’d filled with gross, dried worms. Twisting thecap off a water bottle, he poured it in to make a vile sort of soup for the bird, who began chomping at it with voracious greed.
“Where does he put it all?” I wondered, with a bit of awe.
“High metabolism and specialized digestive systems,” Che responded, reaching out and stroking a finger over the seagull’s white chest while it devoured mouthful after mouthful of dried worms. I remembered the year before, he would barely speak a word to me, even if I asked him a direct question, so I took it as a good sign that he seemed a little more comfortable in my presence. “Plus, they don’t have a gag reflex, so they can swallow food whole and digest it later.”
“No gag reflex?” Arie echoed as he painted another layer of deep burgundy onto Kelani’s nails. “Sounds like you, Che.” Kelani rolled her eyes and shook her head at his comment.
“Arie, stop,” Che responded in a cute whine. Even through the russet tones of his skin, his rosy blush was evident.
“Keep your freaky comments to yourself,” Kelani agreed.
“Did you guys ever end up looking into that porn idea?” I asked, and Arie scoffed, while Che lightly groaned, pointedly keeping his eyes on the bird and not on me.
“I don’t think Mr. Doom and Gloom is going to be very happy about you asking that,” Arie said in a sing-song voice.
“What, you mean Aspen?”
“He seems like he’d be the secretly jealous type,” he confirmed.
