Page 25 of How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck
Getting my mascara to run like that is a talent, I assure you.
Shane
I take back my original rating of that look. It was a 15 out of 10. Truly spectacular. I think you might set a new trend tbh.
Andres curled onto his side with a smile, stuffing a pillow under his chin, and kept typing.
It took a force of nature to pull him out of bed—one in the form of a princess with the vocals of an entire opera house andthe desire for a can of wet food immediately—but he carried his phone with him, replying to Shane between scavenging for snacks and sewing research and rewatches ofShane Rates Stuffepisodes, all of which he live-messaged to Shane.
They hadn’t stopped texting for more than ten consecutive minutes by the time Andres flopped back onto his bed, his gaze bleary but his heart far too filled with anticipation to sleep. When Shane’s texts finally stopped coming, the clock read 4:46am. It felt like too soon, even if the dry, gritty sensation of staring at his phone through his disposable daily contacts warned that it was probably high time Andres let himself rest too.
He dragged them out and dropped them into the trash, closing his eyes as he finally slipped a hand between his legs. He was half asleep as he finished, his mind filled with thoughts of Shane’s skin and the tiny sound he’d made when Andres had pierced his flesh.
11
SHANE
Andres was easy to talk to.
Shane swore he spent just as much time over the next week messaging them as he did waiting impatiently for his vampire’s nightly visits. It was like Andres’s conversation with him at the Fishnettery had never stopped, their engaging mix of relaxed banter and thoughtful analyses dragging Shane in like a moth to the light. He found himself going deeper than he had with anyone in years—not that the bar there was particularly high.
As he splayed across his couch in the late afternoon, the feline heathen lounging between his legs, he casually explained his hopes for his future as a journalist and his fears that after so long in the content mill, no one would ever see him as such.
Andres
Tell me something then. Something journalistic.
Shane
If you’re not more specific, I hope you’re prepared for the sheer chaos you’re likely to get.
Andres
I’m happy for whatever you throw at me.
Shane
Really? Well then, did you know that statistically speaking, nonbinary people are more likely to be cooler, smarter, andhotter than your average human? This research is based on a data pool of one, though, so it may be flawed.
Andres
Oh, very funny.
They sent a gif of falling pink, blue, and white sparkles afterwards though, which made Shane’s grin even wider.
Andres
Tell me something beautiful, then. Something that worms its way into your soul and makes it a little bit brighter.
Shane
That’s harder, huh.
Okay, how about this:
Sometimes I have weird thoughts about death. And I don’t mean like intrusive thoughts or existential dread, but strangely the opposite? When I die someday (hopefully someday very far in the future, mind you), it won’t be simply a tragedy, but an honor too. We all came from stardust and it’s kind of wonderful that we’ll all return to it someday, the molecules in our bodies remade into new life a thousand times over between now and then.
It made him think of Cygnus—not simply the pet name his vampire had chosen for him, but the constellation and the mythology behind it, the mourner having been transformed into a swan and placed in the heavens by the gods after the death of his lover, Phaethon, made him inconsolable. Though the tragedy of the young lovers was far from enviable, Shane thought there was a symbolic beauty in the idea; Cygnus going on to light the nights of other couples for an eternity after, lost but never gone.
