Page 42 of Paint Eater
“Shit, wait,” Jay said and slid off it again to open a window and turned on the fan. “So the smoke gets out.”
A breeze soothed Logan’s skin, already overheated as Jay sat next to him again.
“Okay, so. Don’t inhale too hard, okay? It’s not strong or anything, but no point in overdoing it.”
“I thought you couldn’t ‘overdo it’ with weed?”
“You can’toverdose. You candefinitelyoverdo it, though. Get all, like…totally spaced out. Like,totally.”
“I thought spacing out was the point of smoking.”
“Okay, yeah, but this is like, ‘I can’t think or move’ spaced out. It’s too much. And you can get dizzy and shit.”
“Alight. Duly noted.”
“Cool, so. I’ll light it up but when it’s your turn, drag the smoke into your lungs. You should be able to open your mouth without smoke coming out. You’re for sure gonna cough, so don’t worry about it. Once you get the hang of it, try and hold the smoke as long as you can, ’kay?”
“Sure, professor,” Logan said even though he liked the way Jay explained things, animated and non-judgmental.
Jay rolled his eyes, grinning. “Whatever.”
He lit the blunt up, blowing on the tip so it didn’t catch fire for long, an ember glowing under his mouth. When he deemed it ready, he pressed the unlit end lightly between his lips, looking at Logan.
The red tip glowed for a moment as Jay inhaled, and then it was just Jay’s lips Logan was staring at, Jay’s eyes, the slow way they closed. Jay tilted his head back against the wall.
The moment was held, suspended. The whirring of the fan, the nighttime noises from outside, and Jay, his profile a thing painted into the air with dark ink and glowing light.
Then, an exhale. Thick, white smoke curled from Jay’s lips, dissipating.
Logan was still staring when Jay’s eyes found him again, half-mast, face relaxed.
“Wanna try?”
Logan took the blunt from Jay’s hands wordlessly and tried ignoring Jay as he took a drag.
Jay hadnotbeen wrong. As soon as he tried to inhale, an unbearable, hot itch in the back of his throat made him cough.
“Easy there.” Jay laughed, handing him the canteen.
Logan took a sip of water, coughing a few more times. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, it always happens. Gotta relax your throat.”
Logan threw him a look.
Jay just threw his hands up, laughing. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said, giving him a mock leer.
Logan rolled his eyes.
“Wait, I have an idea.”
Jay took the blunt from Logan and took a drag. He looked at Logan, eyes glowing, before tilting his face closer to Logan’s. One of his thumbs came up to brush across Logan’s bottom lip, and Logan opened his mouth automatically, a rush of feeling like a surge of electricity going through him.
His heart was pounding in his chest, but everything around him was still and quiet. Jay’s lips brushed against his. Logan’s stomach swooped, but he let instinct drive him, inhaling slowly as smoke started seeping from Jay’s mouth.
Logan could almost imagine it, the ghostly connection between them filling up his mouth, his throat, his lungs, hot and damp with Jay’s own breath. They stayed there for a long, thick moment, smoke swirling inside Logan until Jay’s tongue flicked out to lick at Logan’s Cupid’s bow, and the air burst out of him.
He didn’t know how everything with Jay felt so good. Every touch, the way Jay was looking at him now, holding him close in the heat of the moment.
