Page 102 of Dean

“But not tomorrow. Ben…”

“Of course. Ben. We’ll plan it.”

And then I swallow a squeal because hell fucking yes. My dreams are coming true. A date with Dean. Maybe he’ll even fuck me afterward and everything.

A boy can dream.

“Avery,” Dean asks after we’ve finished dinner and are cuddled on the couch. I’m half asleep, full of orange chicken and fried rice, and completely satisfied. Although, if Dean asks me to go for a round two, I so could. I could totally get it up. I’m young and motivated.

“What’s up?” I murmur, rubbing my face against his chest and trying not to purr.

He pauses for a long moment and then says, “So, you know I saw Nick today and he said something that I have a question about.”

“Well, fuck. What did that asshole say?”

“He said something…”

My heart thumps in my chest and I sit up slightly, staring at Dean, wanting to get a read on his face. What the fuck could Nick have told him? I didn’t open up much to him, but hell, we did get drunk a few times…

“What did he say? Just spit it out.”

“He implied I should be concerned about what you got up to when no one was looking.”

I sigh and close my eyes. “Fuck. Well, would you believe me if I said it’s not a big deal? I mean, it’s not great, and not really indicative of my ethics or morals, but…” My voice trails off and I peek an eyelid open, looking at Dean. He’s more curious than anything, waiting for me to admit what it is.

Fucking Nick. Honestly, he’s such an asshole. He shouldn’t have said anything, but then again, he is insisting I stole his money. So I shouldn’t put this past him.

“I’ve stopped. It’s kind of embarrassing, actually.”

Dean continues to wait for me to elaborate. Fuck, I guess I have to. It makes sense to admit it, to tell him, especially since I don’t want Nick to be the one to spill my secrets to him. That would cause Dean to think poorly of me, but at the same time, I don’t really want to admit it.

I should have known that those few times I hung out with my roommates would come back and bite me in the ass. But I was too drunk to care.

I open my mouth to come clean, but suddenly something crashes in the backyard. We both freeze, wondering for a second if we’re imagining it, when it happens again. With a curse, Dean is up and off the couch, rushing to the backdoor. I follow, blinking when he flips the lights on, illuminating the outside.

It’s then that I see it—the ground is on fire near the overturned firepit.

“Shit,” Dean hisses and then rushes toward it, me on his heels.

“Goddamn,” I shout. “Get some water.”

“I know. I fucking know,” Dean hisses.

Flames lick at the grass, a crackling noise meeting my ears as werush toward it. Dean grabs a hose while I hoof it back into the house and pull the fire extinguisher from beneath the kitchen sink. I saw it there when I was organizing shit and thank fuck I did. In seconds, I’m back in front of the fire, Dean hosing it with water as I unleash the entire canister on the smoking flames, the two of us putting the fire out in seconds.

We both just stand there, smoke billowing around us.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but fuck, it was still scary.

“Fuck,” Dean murmurs.

“I can’t—someone set your yard on fire.”

“It was Nick. I’m sure it was that asshole.”

“God, he’s so bad at everything. I mean, he tried to light your backyard on fire? He basically just lit us a toasty campfire and didn’t stay to socialize.”

Dean eyes me and then turns the hose off, letting me follow him back inside.

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