LOGINDAMIAN'S POVāFuck!ā I cussed, tapping the screen of my tablet harder just before I was completely eliminated from the game.āFuck it!ā I snapped again, barely able to hold back from tossing the still glowing gadget.On a whim, I swiped off the tab and opened the reading app I'd downloaded three days ago.Then I clicked it open, swiped until I saw what I was looking for, then I tapped and began to read.I felt the stark white light of the document on my face, the cursor blinking at me like a taunting heartbeat. I had already read it three times now. Once for shock, once for analysis, and a third time because, much to my growing annoyance, I couldn't seem to stop thinking about the story.āOkay, spill. Youāre being weird, Damian and it's making me uncomfortable watching you, ā Dakota taunted, tossing a throw pillow at me from the other end of the couch.āStop it, Dakota,ā I replied grimly. āAlso you don't have to watch me, just leave or close your eyes.āāOh please,ā Dakota rolled her
LEON'S POVThe library was my favourite sanctuary.As usual, it was speckled with dust motes and muffled silence. It was the only place where I could truly breathe.I sat in my usual secluded corner at the back, the screen of my laptop casting a pale, bluish glow against my face as my fingers rapidly danced over the keyboard.I was deep in the vibe of the story, in the way the words flowed, the descriptions of skin and desireā¦things that Iād never actually dared to speak aloud.āI knew I'd find you here.āThe voice came out of nowhere just as a shadow stretched across my keyboard.I slammed the lid of my laptop shut so fast my heart skipped a beat, my blood turning to ice. I looked up, prepared to stammer out some excuse about homework or notes, only to find Damian standing there.He wasn't wearing his usual unreadable expression, and he wasn't surrounded by his group of tittering minions. He also looked different in the soft, amber light of the library, more human, almost approachabl
LEON'S POVI didn't move.Not back, not forward, just stood in my doorway in yesterday's clothes at seven thirty in the morning and looked at Reid Calloway on my porch and breathed.The manila envelope was under his left arm, casual, like he'd just picked up mail on his way over. His expression was exactly the same as the libraryāpatient, warm enough to read as friendly if you didn't know what you were looking at.My phone was upstairs.Aaron was across town.It was just me and a door I'd already opened and a person I hadn't invited here."How do you know where I live," I said. My voice came out even, which surprised me slightly."You'd be amazed what's publicly available," Reid said. "Voter registration. Utility records. Nothing nefarious." He said *nefarious* like it was a word he found slightly amusing. "Can I come in?""No."He nodded, unsurprised. "Okay. We can do this out here." He shifted the envelope from under his arm, held it at his side but didn't open it. "I want you to un
LEON'S POVNobody answered or at least not immediately.Which was fine. Some questions needed a moment before anyone should try to answer them, and what do we do about a person who has two years of private letters and a burner phone collection and apparently nothing but time* was one of those questions.I wrapped both hands around my coffee cup and thought.Aaron was doing the sameāI could see it, the inward focus, the way he went quiet when he was actually working through something rather than performing composure. Marlowe was watching both of us with the patience of someone who'd learned to wait."What's in the letters that he'd actually use," I said finally. "Specifically. Not everythingājust the thing he'd lead with."Marlowe looked at the table for a moment. "There's a sectionā" he stopped, recalibrated. "About six months in. I was in a bad place. Notā" he glanced at me briefly, then Aaron, "ānot dangerous. Just low. The kind of low that's hard to write about without it sounding
LEON'S POVI sat in my driveway for a long time.The photograph glowed on my screenāmy car, Aaron's house, the timestamp, all of itāand I made myself breathe through the first wave of it, the cold spike of violation that came with understanding someone had been standing on that street in the dark watching a house and the person I cared about was inside it.Then I forwarded it to Aaron.No explanation. Just the image.His response came in under two minutes, which meant he'd been awake, probably still in the kitchen with Marlowe and the leftover pasta, and had looked at his phone and understood immediately.**Aaron:** *I see it.***Aaron:** *Are you home?***Leon:** *Just pulled in.***Aaron:** *Good. Stay there. Don't go back out tonight.***Leon:** *I wasn't planning to.***Aaron:** *Lock your doors.***Leon:** *Aaron.***Aaron:** *I know. I know, it's Reid, notāI know. Lock them anyway.*I locked them. Not because I was scared exactly, or not only because of that, but because it was
LEON'S POVI read the message four times.*Yeah. We are.*Three words, twelve fourteen in the morning, sent to a group thread that included Damian, which meant Aaron had just answered a question about us in front of a witness without hesitation, without qualifying it, without the usual layer of careful distance he put between himself and anything that could be taken from him.I locked my phone. Unlocked it and Read it again.Then I typed in the group thread, before I could talk myself into something more measured: *Yeah. We are.*Damian's reply came back in under thirty seconds.**Damian:** *okay cool. good. I'll handle Reid.*Then, after a beat:**Damian:** *also for what it's worth Aaron you could have just said something instead of making me watch you two be weird about each other for like a month***Aaron:** *Go to sleep Damian.***Damian:** *I'm just saying***Aaron:** *Goodnight.***Damian:** *congrats tho genuinely* šThe thread went quiet.I lay in the dark for another few mi
DAMIAN'S POVThe Monday morning bell had a sharper, more annoying edge to it that felt particularly aggravating today.I stood by my locker in the hallway, my eyes tracing the movement of the crowd of students, and then finally settling on Leon. He was leaning against the lockers, books pressed to
AARON'S POVLeon turned to look at me, his eyes soft and searching. āI didn't know it was you, Aaron. I swear it. I wasn't using you.āI let out a small, sad laugh, casting him a quick sideways glance.āIt sure felt like it.āāI apologize for that,ā Leon murmured.āIt was dark, and I was delirious
AARON'S POVI watched Leon cross the street, his tall, lean-muscled frame cutting a sharp, defiant figure against the backdrop of his parentās house.He looked entirely too calm for someone who had been freaking out over the phone when I told him to come down and meet me. And this calmed my nerves
AARONāS POVAmandaās mouth was warm, her tongue swirling with the kind of practiced, passionate precision that usually had my blood turning to lead in my veins.She was very good at this. And she had a reputation for being insatiable, so right now, she was doing everything right. Her knees were pre






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