Page 90 of Body Count

The smirk had fallen away.The loose, confident stance had changed—his shoulders curved in, his arms folded across his chest.He glared at me, his face getting redder and redder.And then he snapped, “You broke into my apartment.”

“Yeah, dipshit.I’m carrying a slim jim.”

“I should call the police.”

“Go ahead, Rory.”

He took out his phone.But he just held it and stared a challenge at me.

“When did you and Eddie start hooking up?”

Several long seconds passed.Rory was breathing through his nose, and his nostrils were pinched and white.Then, by degrees, it all changed again.He stood straighter.He stopped trying to cover his chest and belly.He moved over to the bed and flopped down on it, stretching out, putting himself on display.The fuckboi hath returned.God, maybe I shouldn’t have watched thoseLord of the Ringsmovies with Darnell.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Sure, you do.You keep a fucking scoreboard.When?”

“September.”

“The beginning of the school year.”

Rearranging the pillows to prop himself up, he gave a little shrug.“Tip took us over there for dinner.Eddie couldn’t stop looking at me.I jerked him off on the back porch while Tip and Jordan were doing the dishes.”

“A traditional family dinner.”

To my surprise, he grinned.“He’s a little bitch once he gets a dick inside him.Kind of like you.”

“Did Tip know?”

Rory opened his mouth to answer.Before he could, the yowl of a cat came from his phone—a Prowler notification.He smirked at me as he picked it up.“Sorry, I’m having a big, fat cock delivered.Should I tell him to plan for two?”

“Did Tip know?”

He ignored me as he tapped out a message, and then the phone made a little whooshing noise when he sent it.

“I’m not going to ask you again.”

“I don’t have to talk to you.I don’t have to tell you anything.I could get you arrested.”

“I’ll ask Jordan.”

Emotions warred in Rory’s face.He dropped the phone onto his bed; it yowled again, but this time, he ignored it.Finally, he said, “He knew.”

“What happened?”

“He lost his shit.You know how Eddie is.He’s a fucking asshole, treats Tip like crap, all that fucking big talk.And meanwhile, his wife’s out there, showing her cooch to strangers, and he’s bending over so a kid his son’s age can breed him in a park restroom.He liked that, you know?He wanted me to make him feel like shit.”Rory hesitated, as though realizing he might have said too much.“Tip saw the picture.That was stupid of me; I didn’t think he’d look, much less that he’d be able to tell.”

“Bullshit.”

Rory flipped his hair back.He looked like he was trying not to smile.

“You said he lost his mind,” I said.“What does that mean?”

“We got in a huge fight.He said he was going to tell his dad he knew.I wasn’t going to let him.”

Even with the air conditioning struggling against the heat, I began to sweat.It popped out in hot little spats across my chest and the back of my neck.

But Rory shrugged.“That was last semester, though, so I guess he never told him, because Eddie would have gone ape-shit.”

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