Page 53 of How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck
Somehow, he made it to his apartment, his heart pounding in his chest. He closed the front door behind him and when he couldn’t push himself any further, he slumped against the wall there, pulling in his arms and sniffling.
He had to think about this rationally.
It could, technically, be a good thing: he was obsessed with his vampire, in love with the way their relationship made him feel, and Andres—Andres he’d been quietly crushing on nearly since they met. Rating-wise, this should have been a ten out of ten for love interest consolidation. But Andres had beenlyingto him.
Taking him for a fool.
The jacket his vampire had given him felt constricting suddenly, and Shane tugged violently out of it, his arms catching twice in the twisting sleeves before he managed to rip it free of his skin. The chill of his apartment immediately replaced its warmth and gentle floral scent. It felt like the way Andres had gone stiff when Shane had shoved him, the aggression with which he’d yanked from Shane’s grasp. With a curse, Shane slid his coat back around his shoulders, hugging the sleeves to himself.
The vibration of Shane’s phone startled his heart into a panicked rhythm once more. He scrambled for it, hating the way he needed to know.
It wasn’t Andres.
He breathed out, and it felt like a sob.
Nat1
Hey fucker. /affectionate
Boyfriend is gone again tonight and I’m lonely.
Shane-anigans
Fuck him.
Nat1
Wishing that was literal lmao.
It’s fine, I’m fine.
She finished it with two fire emojis and a dog.
Shane-anigans
You and me both.
What he thought were his two potential relationships was actually a single relationship set ablaze in the least sexy way possible, and he was the kind of fine that needed so many black-slash sarcasm tags.
His traitorous fingers automatically switched him over to his thread with Andres, swiping through motions he’d performed a thousand times that week. Their contact name still readAnders Serrano he/they, with a little sparkle emoji Shane had added a week into their texting. He hadn’t known his vampire’s pronouns, he realized.
His stomach turned, grief first, then anger, then grief again.I’m not done yet, he’d said. And he didn’t feel done, still—he felt raw and empty, like a piece of himself had been ripped away.
When a text appeared at the bottom of their thread, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to hug the device or hurl it across the room.
Andres
Did you get home safely?
Shane
Yes
He didn’t hesitate to answer; didn’t even realize that letting Andres sit with their fear was an option until after he’d already pressed send, and despite the hurricane of emotions rushing through him, Shane couldn’t dream of cruelly holding Andres in suspense like that.
Andres sent back a single heart, white and small and somehow so hopeful that it severed right through Shane. He slumped against the wall beside his door, light still off, his vampire’s jacket around his shoulders. Dots appeared on Andres’s end, then vanished. Appeared, then vanished. Shane wasn’t sure he wanted to see what would finally come over. Maybe he wanted to jump the gun, get in his own accusations first? But he’d shouted enough of those on the boardwalk, and Andres had…
Andres had hurt him.
