Page 32 of Beautifully Devoted

Do dogs have any superpowers?

What superpower would I want?

What superhero should I dress as for Halloween?

After successfully distracting my immature brain with equally immature thoughts about dogs and superheroes, I go back to my homework, and the whole cycle starts again.

I’m starting to think it’s a sign that I need to get laid.

Unfortunately, that thought opens a whole new line of questions, the most pressing being who I should get laid with.

A few weeks ago, that question wouldn’t have stumped me. Today… Let’s just say I’ve been testing Cam’s theory about gay porn being more satisfying than the straight kind, and I haven’t felt turned off by what I’ve seen. So yeah, who remains a mystery, especially since I’ve been feeling jittery around the one person who usually makes me feel safe.

At first, I thought that was my imagination—after all, I was the one trying to figure shit out, so I could see how I might misinterpret things simply because I was confused—but once I realized I could feel his eyes on me the same way I sometimes caught mine on him… It’s been hard to concentrate on anything else ever since.

And then he popped a third leg in the showers and… Well, it could’ve been a coincidence, but my brain doesn’t want it to be.

I haven’t got the first fucking clue what to do about that though.

Frustrated, I let my head fall to the desk, groaning loudly as I bang it halfheartedly on the thick wooden surface.

“Kitcat?” My door creaks open as Cam pokes his head in.

Note to self—don’t be frustrated out loud if I don’t want him to check on me.

“Yeah?” I sit up as he pushes all the way inside, closes the door, and helps himself to a seat on my bed.

“What’s with the head banging?”

“Just this stupid assignment.” I tip my head toward the glowing laptop next to me and spin the chair to face him.

“You don’t like it?” His brows disappear behind his hair. “I thought it was pretty cool.”

“What’d you pick?”

“Toes.”

Mental note. My best friend might possibly have a foot fetish too.

“Seriously?” I recoil as I curl my lip. “Toes are nasty.”

“Well, yeah.” He rubs the back of his neck and gives me a weak smile, probably embarrassed about choosing the body part I hate the most. “But they’re also kind of important. They’re the whole reason we can walk upright. Did you know they support over seventy-five percent of our body weight? With the balls of your feet too, but still. They’re so tiny but they’re fucking strong. What’d you pick? Or can you not choose and that’s what has you beating your head on the desk?”

“Thumbs.” I hold mine up like a hitchhiker.

Cam’s brow furrows as he looks from my hand to the computer. “If you picked a body part to talk about what’s the issue?”

“Too many examples to choose from.” I give him a version of the truth, since admitting one of those examples is jerking off is too embarrassing even for me.

“Pick the top three.” Cam scoots so his back is against the wall, crossing his feet at the ankles like my work here is done.

“It’s not that easy, Camelot. Think of how many things you can hold in your hand with thumbs. Utensils to eat. Tools to build things with. Needle and thread to make clothes. But they all boil down to the same thing, holding shit. That’s one example, and it’s not even that specific.”

“Okay, pick something else then.”

“Like what? The assignment is to pick the most important part of the human anatomy, and you can survive without everything from hands to feet to—”

“Don’t say dicks. You legit cannot turn in a paper about them.”

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