Page 124 of Rat

“You’ve been there?”

“Yeah. With my…” Rory trailed off, then shook his head. He couldn’t go there; it hurt too much. “I’ve been there before. A while ago now.”

“What happened to having a trampoline in the back garden? And what the hell is TikTok?”

They’d driven past a bus shelter with a huge poster advertising the social media platform.

“I didn’t feel this old inside,” Sebastian muttered.

“Inside they still use DVD players and overhead projectors.”

Sebastian snorted. He pointed out a virtual reality gaming centre. “What the hell is that?”

“The youths’ version of cards and chess.”

Sebastian laughed and shook his head. He sighed at the window. “I can walk down this street. I can go to these shops. Sixteen years I’ve been in that prison, and now I’m out.”

“It must be a good feeling.”

“Yes, and at the same time, a massive no.”

“Why no?”

“I’ll have to cook my own meals for a start.”

Rory’s lips twitched with another smile. “The food in there was awful.”

“It got better over the years, trust me. When I first went inside, food poisoning was a monthly occurrence.”

“The food improved, but the rat problem got worse?”

Sebastian tipped his head back and laughed. “The rat problem will continue.”

“You passed that scam on to someone else?”

“Einstein.” Sebastian chuckled. “I still can’t believe you were going to open up a dead rat to get maggots for Teddy.”

“It was for Ollie.”

Sebastian snorted. “It’s still disgusting.”

“When you ripped it open, I thought I’d gone mad.”

“You’d gone mad long before I did that.”

Rory peeked a look at Sebastian, and his chest felt all fluttery when he saw his smile reach his eyes. His heart wasn’t supposed to feel like that; it was supposed to have been dead of all feeling, but it ached when he looked at the man beside him.

“You drove me madder with that Vaseline pot…”

“I drove myself mad. You weren’t the only one suffering through that. I couldn’t get you out of my head, and knowing youwere doing it above me, and at any moment I could make you hard… Let’s just say it was a massive turn-on.”

“Training my dick like a dog.”

Sebastian hummed. He spread his legs. “One of my most ingenious moments inside.”

Rory glanced at the road sign. “We’re leaving the city. Where do you want me to go now?”

Sebastian sighed. “The sea.”

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