Page 42 of Drag Me Up

Her screech of rage is the only warning I get before she pounces on me.

34

MATT

It’s a struggle not to race home as soon as I pull up the pics that Eric sent during my last class. Unfortunately, Mondays are my office hours and Eric made me promise to stay the whole time since he made me late for my first class this morning. I really wish I didn’t make that promise. Staring at my phone I chuckle.

Sparkles:

You have the new manager of the Monarch Room in your bed waiting for you so don’t make me wait too long

Of course, he had to add the extra bit of good news at the end to really make me want to celebrate his promotion. Maybe, I’ll swing by the store and pick up the stuff for some root beer floats? He got me hooked on them with using coffee ice cream when he grabbed the wrong carton out of the freezer on his tenth birthday.

I alternate between the live feed in my living roomand those texts. Only my naughty unicorn would be eating noodles practically naked on my futon.

“Professor Barnes?”

I look up from my phone to see the campus bakery owner in the doorway holding a cup of coffee and a bag that smell suspiciously like his double chocolate muffins.

“What’s up, Donnie?” I ask him as I subtly adjust myself under my desk. I have a little over an hour to go until I can go home, so I might as well hang out with him. He’s one of the few guys on campus that I have had regular interactions with since I’m a younger professor and trying to avoid fraternization issues. The guys from the house are going to be testing those waters enough for me, now.

“You know the Mendleton family, right?” he asks as he sets the bag and coffee down on my desk. “I need to get a message to the son, Eric, but everything I’ve tried has come up undeliverable. I really hope you can help me out here. It’s important.”

It’s difficult to contain my anger at his asking about my Cutie the day after the media threw him to the wolves, but I somehow reign it in enough to ask through clenched teeth, “I haven’t spoken to anyone with that last name in almost a decade. Why do you need to get in touch with him?”

Don’s shoulders fall as he slumps down in the chair. The disappointment rolling off of him is practically suffocating.

“I don’t know if you read the news or anything, but this thing happened five years ago and a really nastyguy is getting a parole hearing thanks to a loophole his piece of shit lawyer used in appeal. I’m testifying to the parole board, but basically without Eric, the chances are pretty high that his ass will be walking out of jail.”

Something is niggling at the back of my mind, but I push past it to ask.

“Why would you be testifying?”

“I was on the hockey team with the guy,” he says with a sigh. “I tried to stop them that night, but after they slapped me around, I crawled out of the room to try to find someone else who could help. I blacked out after falling down the stairs, and by the time I came to, it was too late.

“I fucking failed him once. I can’t let that fucker get out to hurt him again, man. Please, Lew. If you can find him, tell him the hearing is in two weeks. Give him my number if he’s willing to come. If he can’t face Rafe, I know my lawyer can probably get approval for something remote. But I need to know by Friday. They’re closing the witness list at three.”

My phone dings to alert me that someone has unlocked my back door. I hold up a finger to let Donnie know I just have to check this out. I didn’t get a notification of it being unlocked or locked again after Eric got back from his meeting with Clarence, so I need to know who the fuck just came into my home.

The code used to get into the house was my mother’s birthday, which I set up solely for her use. I let out a breath of relief and prepare for my phone to ring with the admonishment from my mother at keeping Eric a secret.

Donnie gives me a questioning look when my smirk falls off my face. Mom would have called right away…

I pull up the doorbell camera for the backdoor and rewind it to see who came in and jump out of my chair.

“What’s up, Lew?”

“Fuck, Donnie. I gotta go. Someone broke into my house and…”

“I’ll follow you. Let’s roll.”

I grab his arm when we get to the parking lot and drag him to my car. I had pulled up the hidden camera on my TV and Sylvia is in my house with Eric only in his fucking underwear.

“I need you to watch this feed for me while I drive,” I tell him as I shove my phone into his hand. “I need to know what is going on when I get there.”

Starting the engine, I don’t even look before racing out of the parking lot. It takes a second for me to realize I can hear the audio of the feed through my speakers. Thank fuck for Bluetooth. Turning up the dial, my stomach turns at what I’m hearing.

“Lewis decided to experiment and found himself a pet fag for a few weeks. Well guess what, sweetheart. He doesn’t care about you. He couldn’t even be bothered to give you a real name. So get the fuck out of our home.”

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