Page 57 of Paint Eater
Logan looked at Jay for a moment before shrugging. “Let me eat something, and we can go.”
Jay felt a flare of excitement. He could guess that this wasn’t something Logan usually did, but his willingness to deviate from the norm was nothing but good news to Jay.
Nighttime was falling by the time they arrived at the bar. As Jay had hoped, they weren’t carded, and he ordered both of them some shots and a beer.
“Really?” Logan said as the shots arrived.
“Yes, really.” He passed the glass to Logan, who took it without further protest. “One, two, shot!”
They knocked the drink back, Logan grimacing. Jay just laughed, grabbing their beers and finding a booth.
Despite having just eaten, Logan got tipsy in no time, and they ended up pressed against each other, Logan’s face open and happy.
“I know they’re good at it, buthow? They’reunderwater. How can they smell?”
“In like, California or something, an Orca killed a shark and every single shark in the vicinity vanished. Like, they just dove…dived? Dove? Is that a word? Dove like fifteen hundred feet deep.”
“How?Like, don’t we need like particles…in our nose? And it’s water.”
“Let’s google it.”
“No, just tell me how.”
“I don’t know.” Jay laughed at the frustrated expression on Logan’s face. “I’m sorry.”
“Betrayal,” Logan joked, shoving Jay away.
Jay grinned, moving even closer, delighted by Logan’s playfulness. “Animals are just cool, I guess. Like, there’s a type of wolf, I think they’re literally called sea wolves, that gets most of their food from the sea, and even their DNA is different from other wolves. Like, you could know it’s a sea wolf from theirDNA.”
“That…I wonder if humans would get different DNA if they only ate and hunted in the sea.”
“Fuck, yeah. Never thought about that.”
“Maybe we’d get webbed feet.”
“That’d be awesome.”
“Oh, is that what you’re into?” Logan asked, laughing at him. “Webbed feet?”
“Uh, yeah. I thought you knew? Sorry, baby, but only Psyducks for me.”
“You are such a nerd.”
“Oh,I’mthe nerd? Really? You wanna go there?”
“The biggest nerd.Biggest.”
“What’s this about me being big?” Jay waggled his eyebrows, poking the tip of his tongue out.
“Oh, gross, shut the fuck up,” Logan whined, smile wide.
Jay leaned closer, brushing his nose against Logan’s temple, kissing him there. “Wanna go home?”
Logan turned to look at him, lips close, and Jay had to remind himself that it was probably not the best idea to make out with Logan in the middle of a Boston bar. Luckily, Logan nodded, a strange look crossing his face. “Home.”
The trip back to the apartment was lazy and calm, sparks igniting and extinguishing at every brush of their hands, pinkies hooked together as they climbed the stairs to the front door.
“You know,” Logan started as they stepped inside the apartment. Jay looked at him curiously, kicking his shoes off. Logan looked down, his voice quiet. “There’s this stork, I think his name is…Kl…something with a K. Anyway, he migrates from South Africa to Croatia every year to be with a female stork who was shot or something and can’t fly. She lives indoors with someone, but when he arrives, they stay together in a nest until he leaves again. They’ve had a shit-ton of babies together.”
